Netherlands

[NL] Dutch MPs in favour of banning TikTok from government devices

IRIS 2023-4:1/6

Arlette Meiring

Institute for Information Law (IViR), University of Amsterdam

On 15 February 2023, an important debate of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Digital Affairs on data-ethics was held, where various Dutch MPs expressed their concerns about the use of TikTok on government mobile devices.

It was not the first time that the government use of TikTok has been a topic of discussion in Dutch politics. The Committee debate followed previous advice from the Public Information and Communications Service of the Ministry of General Affairs in September 2022 "to suspend the use of TikTok at the central government level until TikTok has adjusted its data protection policy", and the submission of written questions on the matter to the Minister of Digitalisation, a few weeks earlier, by MP Dekker-Abdulaziz (member of Democraten 66 (D66), a social liberal political party in the Netherlands). In her submission, the MP emphasised the app's "potentially high safety risk" and enquired whether the Minister would support a ban.

During the debate, MPs pointed to the recent decision of the U.S. government to ban TikTok from federal government devices and wondered whether the Netherlands would be "naïve" not to do the same. The Minister of Digitalisation ensured the MPs that she understood the concerns and that her Ministry was examining TikTok's compliance with applicable laws and regulations. She also mentioned the deliberate choice of the Dutch government not to use TikTok as a medium to share official information with the public, on the grounds that it is "not sufficiently clear how the platform works and how it treats collected data". The Minister promised to soon inform the House of Representatives about the government's stance on the use of TikTok by public servants.

Importantly, on 24 February 2023, the Minister reported to the House in writing that she had taken note of the decisions of the European Commission and the EU Council on 23 February to ban the use of TikTok from staff phones, stressing that the Netherlands would seek to collaborate with the Commission and other European countries to arrive at a joint policy. However, she was not able to elaborate on the Dutch approach yet, as she was still awaiting information from the internal departments which are investigating TikTok and its potential risks.


References

  • Report of a committee debate, held on 15 February 2023, on the use of algorithms and data-ethics at the central government

  • Questions submitted by the Members of Parliament, i.e. by the member Dekker-Abdulaziz (D66), 2 February 2023, no. 2023Z1674

  • Questions submitted by the Members of Parliament, with answers from the government, 24 February 2023, no. 1704

  • Questions submitted by the Members of Parliament, with answers from the government, 11 November 2022, no. 693

  • Questions submitted by the Members of Parliament, with answers from the government, 8 November 2022, no. 638

This article has been published in IRIS Legal Observations of the European Audiovisual Observatory.