The Polish government will continue using TikTok, including for electoral purposes said the ruling party PiS, which has also asked the European Commission to provide further justification for its recent decision to ban the social media app from staff devices, according to Euractiv.
In the last week, the EU institutions, Canada and the US banned Chinese-owned TikTok from public officials’ devices amid growing concerns about privacy and cybersecurity.
Unphased by such concerns, the ruling party PiS says it would not follow suit and will continue using the current budget of PLN 3 million (€638,000) for governmental campaigns to use the app, including for electoral purposes, Rzeczpospolita reports.
The Interior Ministry said it is not planning to make any changes to its social media strategies, including Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
Janusz Cieszynski, the government official responsible for digitalization matters, took a step further and suggested that the Commission banning the social media app from staff phones could even be political rather than technical. Poland has already asked the Commission to provide technical reasons to justify its decision, Cieszynski added.
Two weeks ago, PiS launched its brand-new account to connect with young voters and address “anti-PiS messages”, MEP Tomasz Poreba said in a video on TikTok.