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Macron, France's Ministers Abandon Use of TikTok on Work Phones - Cabinet Spokesman

© AP Photo / Kiichiro SatoA logo of a smartphone app TikTok is seen on a user post on a smartphone screen Monday, Sept. 28, 2020, in Tokyo.
A logo of a smartphone app TikTok is seen on a user post on a smartphone screen Monday, Sept. 28, 2020, in Tokyo.  - Sputnik International, 1920, 02.03.2023
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PARIS (Sputnik) - French President Emmanuel Macron and all ministers in the French cabinet have abandoned the use of popular Chinese-owned video app TikTok on their work phones because of suspicions it violates user privacy, French government spokesman Olivier Veran said Wednesday.
"Whether it is the president of the republic, the prime minister, or members of the government, they all have work phones on which, in any case, no social networking applications can be installed. Therefore, not a single professional phone of ministers has TikTok or other applications installed on it," Veran told a briefing.
The National Assembly, France's lower house, has previously called on government officials to be more careful about applications they install on their smartphones, without mentioning TikTok, "due to security risks." Veran also urged not to "single out one particular app from a number of others."
Veran added that, in pursuit of European digital sovereignty, it was necessary to have all the necessary safeguards regarding the collection of personal data within the European Union by applications that can be used by high-level officials.
The TikTok logo is seen on a cell phone, Friday, Oct. 14, 2022, in Boston. - Sputnik International, 1920, 01.03.2023
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"We do not want such applications to collect data to be processed outside the EU. This is one of the pillars of European sovereignty, and we are not naive on this issue," the spokesman said.
Launched by Chinese company ByteDance in 2018, TikTok has since become a leader in the short video app segment and has turned into one of the most popular social media platforms worldwide.
In December of last year, several US governors prohibited state officials from using TikTok on their devices and at state premises. The European Union's institutions followed suit earlier this year. TikTok called these measures groundless and politically motivated.
The Wednesday development comes as the US House Foreign Affairs Committee cleared a piece of legislation giving US President Joe Biden the ability to ban the Chinese-owned social media app from American users. The chamber's passage marks just the most recent attack against TikTok by US officials since the days of the Trump administration.
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