Many Western countries, including the United States, have taken the decision to ban the use of TikTok at least on devices related to government work, however, it could be difficult in Estonia without changes in the legislation, writes ERR News.
The Foreign Affairs Committee of the US House of Representatives has expanded the ban on TikTok, and now it affects all mobile phones in the country. Until now, TikTok was not allowed to be used on government agency devices. Canada and Denmark have also banned governments from using the Chinese-made app.
In Estonia, there is no sign yet of banning the popular app. The Estonian Information Systems Authority (RIA) has only advised officials to avoid using TikTok on work devices. Head of RIA CERT-EE Tõnu Tammer told ERR News that the administration relies on citizens’ ability to independently assess risks.
The administration banned its employees from using TikTok on work devices two years ago, and five ministries also confirmed they had followed the call not to use the Chinese app.
However, none of these ministries has officially announced the ban.
The advisor of the Ministry of Justice, Henrik Trasberg, stated that a complete ban on TikTok in government institutions cannot be ruled out: «In general, we have a cybersecurity law that covers this issue. This law is used to make regulations that set security standards. It is possible to set this security standard so that Tiktok and other similar services can’t be used.»
However, he added that in order to ban the use of TikTok throughout Estonian society, changes in European Union legislation are needed. Data protection law currently does not allow banning an app even if its controllers knowingly violate the law.