While it may not be considered in the same ranks as the likes of Elden Ring, God of War, Call of Duty, or FIFA, the fact is Candy Crush is one of the world's biggest games. With millions of players around the world, Candy Crush is one of the most profitable games in the industry, raking in millions for Activision Blizzard since it owns the makers of the title — mobile game specialist King.
Candy Crush has devoured thousands of hours of players who like to sneak in games where they can, but that's not the reason why the game has been banned by the French government. Yes, the mobile title has been sanctioned by France with its government employees no longer allowed to install or use the app.
It's not only Candy Crush that public servants will no longer be allowed. On Friday, Le Monde reported that "recreational" apps such as Twitter, Netflix, TikTok, and Candy Crush are being banned by the French government with some 2.5 million state civil servants no longer able to install or use them on their business phones.
This is not about these recreational apps taking up too much attention and wasting workers' productivity however, but about apparent security concerns. The French authorities have deemed the applications risks "in terms of cybersecurity and data protection of public officials and the administration", summarised the staff of civil service minister Stanislas Guerini.
While the full list of banned apps have not yet been drawn up, Le Monde reported that "as a matter of principle" all applications that could be considered recreational will be banned, with only a few individual exemptions for institutional communication purposes. While France's authorities have blanket banned its staff from using such apps, it is TikTok that has been singled out by other Western countries.
The US federal government, Canada, the European Commission, and the UK have banned government workers from having TikTok on their devices. The reasoning is concern over the Chinese government potentially compelling TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to hand over sensitive data. TikTok CEO Shou Chew told the US' House committee last week that ByteDance was "not an agent of China" and has denied collaborating with the Chinese government.
TikTok was banned by India, with its entire citizenry unable to use the app, in June 2020, citing issues of privacy and national sovereignty, while in gaming India also banned PUBG Mobile last summer citing "national security concerns".