State employees prohibited from installing ‘recreational apps’ such as TikTok, Instagram, and Twitter on government phones.

The government banned, on Friday March 24, the installation and use of applications “recreational”, on the professional telephones of the 2.5 million State civil servants, announced the Ministry of the Civil Service in a press release. This decision concerns in particular TikTok, Twitter or Instagram.

If no application list “firm and definitive” is stopped, specifies the entourage of the minister, Stanislas Guérini, to franceinfo, three main categories are concerned. These are apps “recreational”of “gaming”and of “streaming”like Netflix.

France is thus following in the footsteps of several Western institutions and governments that have already banned or limited the use of the Chinese social network on professional devices. Shas possible use by Beijing for intelligence purposes worries.

“A data protection risk”

The applications targeted by the ban “do not have sufficient levels of cybersecurity and data protection”, says the Ministry of Public Service. They can “constitute a risk to the protection of the data of these administrations and their public officials”.

The Chinese government “has never asked or will ask any company or individual to collect or [lui] submit data from abroad in a way that would violate local laws”assured Friday a spokesperson for Chinese diplomacy, Mao Ning.