Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hinted that banning TikTok in the European Union is an option, during a debate held in Maastricht, POLITICO reports.
“It is not excluded,” von der Leyen said after the presenter referred to the US, where TikTok is under a national ban unless it is sold by its owner, ByteDance. The chairwoman also added that the European Commission was among the first to ban its employees from installing TikTok on their work phones. She said:
“We know exactly the danger of TikTok.”
Von der Leyen was speaking in Maastricht not as Commission President but as the leading candidate of the centre-right European People’s Party, but the remark came amid a string of bad news for TikTok in Europe.
Last week, TikTok decided to suspend a feature that rewarded users for interacting with the TikTok Lite app after the Commission launched a review of the feature under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) content moderation law.
TikTok is under separate investigation – also under the DSA – for alleged failure to protect minors. Under the DSA, the Commission can in any case order a temporary suspension of the service as a last resort.
The other candidates in the debate were more uncertain. Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the leading candidate from the liberal ALDE party, said that when talking about TikTok, we have to see “what happens there.”
Von der Leyen herself is reportedly avoiding TikTok while campaigning for a second term.
In March, it was reported that US President Joe Biden also intends to sign a bill on a possible ban on the social network TikTok. In late April, the Senate passed a law banning TikTok activities in the US.
