The Swedish Military is back on the popular Chinese social media platform TikTok, the Swedish armed forces writes in a press release on their website.
There are several reasons why they are now joining the platform. Head of marketing at the Swedish armed forces, Johan Landeström, says young people’s media habits is one of the reasons:
“It is the largest digital channel for young people, and it is important for us to be where the target audience is. It’s also about public engagement.”
In November 2022, the Government Offices urged their employees to delete TikTok from their work phones. The main reason was the risk of data being shared through the app, as Chinese companies are legally required to assist the country’s intelligence services.
A similar trend took place in Denmark, where employees of the Ministry of Defence were banned from using the app after recommendations from the Centre for Cybersecurity in February 2023.
Norway followed soon after Denmark in april 2023, banning both Chinese Tiktok and Russian Telegram on all work phones.
Source: Forsvarsmakten