The European Commission’s refusal to open a TikTok account is facing pushback inside its own Berlaymont headquarters, with some officials arguing that the EU is making a strategic mistake by staying off a platform used by roughly 200 million Europeans.
Whether the executive branch should establish a presence on the Chinese-owned platform has come up in high-level meetings, with at least one commissioner backing a review, according to sources cited by Politico.
The Commission banned TikTok from staff devices in 2023 over cybersecurity concerns. The ban also covers “personal devices enrolled in the Commission’s mobile device service,” a Commission spokesperson said.
“We are monitoring how the platform develops, particularly regarding data protection and cybersecurity concerns,” the Commission said. There is little sign the policy is about to change. Dana Spinant, the Commission’s director-general for communication, opposes creating an official account, according to an official familiar with the discussions.
According to the sources, there is frustration in some commissioners’ offices that Brussels has been absent from a platform where young Europeans increasingly get their news and opinions.
A second official argued that Russia has no such reservations about using social media platforms to influence European public opinion, and that the Commission can’t afford to hold back.
The debate comes as President Ursula von der Leyen and her commissioners try to reach more Europeans through social media. Von der Leyen will invite influencers, including some who post on TikTok, to her State of the Union address this month.
One of the sources cited by Politico called it ironic that the Commission encourages influencers to spread its message on a platform while refusing to establish its own presence there. The Commission is increasingly turning to YouTube instead, a US-based platform where it has more than 500,000 subscribers, according to the sources.
