A person holds a smartphone as Tik Tok logo is displayed behind in this picture illustration taken November 7, 2019. Picture taken November 7, 2019. (Photo: REUTERS)

Countries including the United States and Britain, as well as the European Union ’s executive branch, have banned the use of TikTok on government staff phones over fears that its Chinese owner, ByteDance, could share user data with the authoritarian government in Beijing.

“For civil servants employed by the national government, it is immediately discouraged to have apps from countries with an offensive cyber program against the Netherlands and/or Dutch interests installed and used on their mobile work devices,” the government said in a statement Tuesday that did not identify TikTok by name.

The new policy came after lawmakers asked whether it was possible to ban central government staff from using the app on work devices.