Danish parliament calls for removal of TikTok for cybersecurity

COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Denmark’s parliament on Tuesday urged lawmakers and assembly workers not to have TikTok on their work phones as a cybersecurity measure, saying “there is a risk of spying.”

The popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app is coming under increasing scrutiny in Europe and the US for security and data privacy concerns amid fears it could be used to promote pro-Beijing views or track information from its users.

House Speaker Søren Gade said an email was sent to lawmakers and parliamentary staff on Tuesday with “a strong recommendation to remove the TikTok app if they already have it installed.”

The move follows an assessment by the Danish Cybersecurity Center, which indicated there was a risk of espionage. The agency is part of the country’s foreign intelligence service.

It is currently unknown how many Danish lawmakers have TikTok on their devices. In recent days, several politicians have announced that they have removed the application from their work mobile phones for security reasons.

Earlier this month, the European Commission said it had temporarily banned TikTok on employee cellphones as a cybersecurity measure.

The European Union action followed similar actions in the United States, where more than half of the country’s 50 states and Congress banned TikTok from official government devices.

In non-EU Norway, the justice minister was forced to apologize this month for not revealing she had installed the app on her official phone.