The Government has instructed to remove the Tiktok application from all office phones. Also in other western countries, decision makers have been asked to leave the application due to information security ambiguities.
In addition to young people, Tiktok is also used by several decision-makers. Anu Kivistö/Colourbox
Due to data security uncertainties, the social media application Tiktok was instructed to be removed from the State Council’s office phones in October. In practice, this means ministers and ministry staff.
Tiktok is an application owned by the Chinese technology company Bytedance. Numerous experts around the world have stated that the application poses a potential threat to information security. It is feared that the phone user’s data will end up in China’s possession. The application is banned from, among other things, US, UK and EU government office phones.
– This is specifically a guideline and not a binding order in case the official duties require, for example, checking the content uploaded to the application. However, I assume that the official duties of a few people require the use of Tiktok, the Information Affairs Advisor of the State Council’s Chancellery Max Hamberg tells Iltalehte.
According to Hamberg, office phones are only allowed to install applications needed for official duties. However, it remains open to interpretation whether the use of Tiktok is classified as necessary for, for example, election campaigning.
Information management manager of the Parliament Ari Apilon MPs have been instructed on the use of social media. The instructions on Tiktok or other social media services do not apply to the personal phones of those working in the Government Council.
– Denying it is impossible, because social media is a key part of an MP’s work, especially during elections, Apilo says.
The most followed Finnish parties in the application are Basic Finns and the Greens. Evening News has reported on the matter in January.
According to a recent survey by the research institute Labore, a third of the 15-29-year-old app users would vote for basic Finns.
Basic Finns is the most followed party on Tiktok
In the number of followers on Tiktok, the top place for MPs is dominated by basic Finns Sebastian Tynkkynen with almost 130 thousand followers. Chairman of Basic Finns Riikka Purra also uses the application, but remains far behind Tynkkysen in the number of followers of a good 23 thousand.
– Tiktok has a red-green perception of the limits of freedom of speech. It is a clear limitation for us basic Finns to do politics there, from which the parties on the other side get an unreasonable advantage. PS videos and accounts are deleted in it, while the Red and Greens have Baana open for their messages, Tynkkynen commented on the application in an email to Iltalehti.
Sebastian Tynkkynen is Tiktok’s most popular MP with over 130,000 followers.
In many countries, decision makers have been warned or outright banned from using Tiktok. In Finland, ministers have also been asked to remove the application from their phones. However, Tynkkynen is not worried, but mirrors his actions more to the media.
– Iltalehti, like other Finnish media, uses Tiktok more actively for their communication than I do, and since I don’t have the resources of investigative journalism at my disposal for investigative work, I have followed the example of the media here, Tynkkynen comments on the app’s data security issues.
“The application does not seek to remove certain types of political content”
The Green Party is the second most followed party on the app. Among the party’s MPs, the one who enjoys the most Tiktok popularity Sofia Virtra has 107 thousand followers. However, he has over a million more likes than Tynkkyne.
Virtra’s account has been suspended from the application twice. He mostly uploads content related to human rights to his account. In the most recent case, the account was suspended after he uploaded a video to the app arguing against American abortion laws.
– We discussed this with Tiktok’s Nordic representatives. They assured that the application does not aim to remove certain political or human rights-related content, Virta commented to Iltalehte.
Along with Tynkkynen, Sofia Virta is the only MP who has reached more than 100,000 followers. Petteri Paalasmaa
According to Virra, the application is the right way to reach young people. In his opinion, the content uploaded to the application also involves a lot of responsibility, because the application also reaches a lot of minors.
– As decision-makers, we especially have a responsibility to think about what kind of content we upload to the service. We don’t even go out on the street to tell children how we think things are.
About chairmen of parliamentary groups Hjallis Harkimo (Liik.) and vice-presidents Matias Mäkynen (SDP) also use the application.
It is worth checking the implementation of privacy protection
The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom’s Cybersecurity Center has not determined that the application poses a special security threat. The Cybersecurity Center is not the authority that decides on the matter, but issues guidelines to support decision-making.
– In general, in all applications, it is worth looking at how their privacy protection has been implemented. Tiktok has recently been heavily featured on this theme, Director of Cyber Services Development at the Cybersecurity Center Pekka Jokinen tells.
The Cybersecurity Center does not take a more detailed position on the Tiktok case. Individual applications have not been studied so carefully that they can be classified as either dangerous or harmless.