Dutch government bans officials from installing TikTok on work phone

The Netherlands will soon ban government officials from installing TikTok on their government phones. Government services will immediately start discouraging officials from having the app on their phone, and soon all work phones will be set up to only allow the installation of pre-approved apps, State Secretary Alexandra van Huffelen said in a letter to parliament.

The list of pre-approved apps does not include “espionage-sensitive apps.” A spokesperson for Van Huffelen confirmed to NOS that TikTok falls under that heading. There are 140,000 government officials and civil servants in the Netherlands. The spokesperson couldn’t say how many of them use a government phone.

Many Western countries are concerned about TikTok because the popular social media app is owned by the Chines company Bytedance. They worry that the company will share TikTok data with the Chinese government. Intelligence service AIVD also recently advised the government that apps “managed by countries with an offensive cyber program aimed at the Netherlands and Dutch interests” have an increased espionage risk.

“Recent parliamentary questions and international developments have led us to make a careful assessment that goes further than advising against one application,” Van Huffelen said on Tuesday. She called this step of only allowing pre-approved apps on government phones a structural solution for civil servants.

A majority in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, already supported such a ban.