Australia has joined a growing list of Western nations, including the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand, France, the Netherlands, and the European Commission, to ban the use of the Chinese-owned social media app TikTok on government devices.
The decision followed advice from the country’s intelligence agencies and is due to national security concerns.
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the ban would be effective “as soon as practicable” and that the government would approve some exemptions on a “case-by-case basis” with appropriate security mitigations in place.
Cybersecurity experts have previously warned about the potential for TikTok to hoover up data and share it with the Chinese government. The app has more than one billion global users, with surveys estimating that around seven million Australians use it, representing a quarter of the population.
The Attorney-General’s department has also stated that the app posed “significant security and privacy risks” stemming from the extensive collection of user data. Fergus Ryan, an analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, has described the ban as a “no-brainer,” saying it has been clear for years that TikTok user data is accessible in China.
Ryan added that Beijing would likely perceive the move as unfair treatment of a Chinese company. The security concerns stem from a 2017 Chinese law that requires local firms to hand over personal data to the state if it is relevant to national security.
Beijing has denied that these reforms pose a threat to ordinary users, and a foreign ministry spokesperson has said that China “has never and will not require companies or individuals to collect or provide data located in a foreign country, in a way that violates local law.”
