TikTok's head of southern Europe told Lusa that the European Commission's suspension of the social network on professional devices is "a political decision that goes far beyond" respect for European rules..

"In a way, we understand that the debate can be more political" in the United States, but "here in Europe we have very strong rules" at a European and national level "that we respect", says Giacomo Lev Manheimer, TikTok's 'head of government relations and public policy, southern Europe'.

"That's why we don't see [the suspension by the European Commission] as being within this framework of rules, above all we see it as a political decision that goes far beyond the rules and respect for European rules," he said.

The European Commission announced last week that it was suspending the use of the TikTok application on its staff's professional devices in order to protect the EU executive from cybersecurity threats, and that officials now have until March 15 to uninstall it.

Asked if he thinks this decision could be a politicization of technology, Giacomo Lev Manheimer says yes.

"Of course, we are not blind, we know that we are in the middle of a geopolitical tension," but there is a "complete misunderstanding of what TikTok is" in the middle of this conflict, he continues.

This is because TikTok "is not a Chinese vehicle, it's a global company", he points out, noting that the company's management is "between Singapore and the United States".

In addition, "our data is in the United States. We really don't feel we should be at the center of this geopolitical conflict" and "we can understand why the pressure in the United States is high" with regard to the social network, but "we honestly don't see any reason for it in Europe", stresses the head of the social network owned by the Chinese company ByteDance.

Asked whether TikTok is the new target after Huawei, Giacomo Lev Manheimer points out that the social network "is a different company".

Again, "I think it's a misconception about this parallelism," but if you "look at the facts behind the company, they are two different companies," added TikTok's head for southern Europe.

"I'm not talking about them [Huawei], but I am talking about us: we don't have a Chinese government stake in our company, we don't have any Chinese managers at TikTok, the data isn't in China," he says.

In addition, the investors are the founder, the company's employees and "only US institutional investors".

For this reason, "I think it's difficult to place TikTok in the middle of a geopolitical tension if you look at the facts", but sometimes "prejudice" can result in this attempt at comparison, he considers.

The European Commission justified the decision with cybersecurity issues, which took TikTok's managers by surprise.

The decision regarding China's TikTok, which is owned by ByteDance, comes after the United States banned the application of federal devices in the country.