Slovakia joins the list of countries banning Tiktok

TikTok application on smartphone. Photo: Reuters

The head of the Slovak Parliamentary Office, Daniel Guspan, said that the agency's employees have been banned from using the TikTok app, and this ban is also proposed to apply to MPs and their assistants.

The decision by the Slovak parliament follows statements by international security agencies, which identified Tiktok as a significant risk in the field of cybersecurity as it can collect a disproportionate amount of information from devices where the application is installed.

The Slovak Parliament has now banned the installation and use of applications considered a security threat on Parliament devices, as well as blocked network communication of such applications in the Parliament's computer network and information systems.

In a letter calling on MPs to boycott Tiktok, the Slovak Parliamentary Office also noted that the amount, manner and type of data collected do not correspond to the main purpose of the application as a social network and could be used for a cyber attack targeting specific people, their connections, devices and other assets that a person uses when working with electronic means of communication.

Government agencies in North America and Europe have recently banned the app from government mobile phones over concerns that TikTok could be passing information to the Chinese government. Of course, ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, has repeatedly denied all allegations.

The company said the bans were based on misconceptions and driven by broader geopolitics in which TikTok and its millions of users had no role./.