The Australian government has announced a ban on TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned video-sharing app, for use on government phones over security concerns. The decision came after the completion of the government report, Review into Foreign Interference through Social Media Applications, carried out by the Home Affairs department.
TikTok criticized the ban, calling it “driven by politics, not by fact.” However, all members of the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network – Australia, the US, Britain, New Zealand, and Canada – have now banned the app from government devices.
Victoria, one of Australia’s six states, also plans to follow federal guidance and ban TikTok from municipal devices.
The ban will come into effect “as soon as practicable,” and exemptions would only be granted on a case-by-case basis, according to Australia’s Attorney General.
Tiktok’s general manager in Australia, Lee Hunter, expressed disappointment about the ban, and claimed that there is no evidence to suggest that TikTok is a security risk to Australians, and that it should not be treated differently from other social media platforms.
Western governments have been concerned that TikTok’s Chinese owners, ByteDance, will be forced by the Chinese government to share the massive amounts of private data it collects on its users. The ban comes on the same day Australian and Chinese officials are meeting in Beijing to discuss improving diplomatic trade relations.
China is Australia’s largest trading partner. Relations between the two countries have been strained since 2018 when Australia refused to allow Chinese tech companies to be involved in a nationwide 5G rollout.
