Austria joins list of countries banning Chinese-owned TikTok from government phones

Vienna: Austria will join a growing list of countries banning Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok from the work phones of government employees, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said on Wednesday.

Various Western countries, including Britain, the United States and several other European Union member states, have already banned TikTok over security concerns. The EU’s two biggest policymaking institutions also banned the app in March.

“It will be banned on work mobile phones. It will certainly be possible (to use the app) on private phones outside the state network,” Karner told reporters ahead of a weekly cabinet meeting on whether politicians in the government would be able to use the app.

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, is under scrutiny from governments and regulators as China’s government may use the app to harvest users’ data or advance its own interests.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Christina Fincher)

Disclaimer: This report is generated automatically from Reuters news service. ThePrint is not responsible for its content.


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