“Recreational applications”, including TikTok, banned on the phones of civil servants in France

The government on Friday banned with immediate effect the installation and use of all so-called “recreationalon the professional telephones of 2.5 million state civil servants. This ban concerns the Chinese video application TikTok, but also “Netflix or Candy Crush“, specifies in Figaro the ministry of Digital. An exhaustive list of prohibited applications has not been communicated.

These apps”do not have sufficient levels of cybersecurity and data protection to be deployed on government equipment», Indicates a press release from the Minister of Public Service Stanislas Guérini.

“This prohibition applies immediately and uniformly“, continues the Minister. Exceptions will be grantedfor professional needs such as the institutional communication of an administration.»

The personal telephones of civil servants are not affected by this measure. “The Government must protect France against any possible attack on its security and sovereignty.“, adds the Minister of Digital Jean-Noël Barrot.

France goes further than other countries

France is following in the footsteps of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom or Belgium, which, in the name of the precautionary principle, have banned TikTok from the function phones of state agents and members of their governments. . Doubt hangs over the ability of the video application to transmit data to the Chinese central power. TikTok defends itself from such practices.

Read alsoEspionage, propaganda, links with Beijing… the suspicions hanging over TikTok

Paris nevertheless pushes the cursor further by prohibiting for data security reasons all recreational applications, regardless of their origins. The mobile game Candy Crush was created by the Swedish company King, but the latter was acquired in 2016 by the American group Activision-Blizzard.

According to Politico, the National Assembly has for its part advised deputies and their teams to limit the use of TikTok, but also of the American messengers WhatsApp and Signal and of the messenger of Russian origin Telegram. The American social networks Snap and Instagram are also targeted.

“Given the particular risks to which the exercise of their mandate exposes Members who use these applications, we would like to call on your extreme vigilance and recommend that you limit their use.“wrote the deputies Renaissance Marie Guévenoux and Eric Woerth as well as the leader of the Republicans Eric Ciotti. In this email, they advise MPs to opt for the collaborative work platform Wimi, secure and French.

The office telephones of members of the government as well as of the staff of the cabinets of the sovereign ministries are highly secure. It is impossible to install social networks or mobile games.