TikTok is banned from government devices in Australia due to security concerns

Following the U.S. and its allies in the intelligence-sharing community, Australia has also announced it will block TikTok on all government-issued digital devices in response to concerns about the security of data stored on the app.

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With the announcement by Australia's attorney general, the so-called Five Eyes intelligence alliance has restricted government access to the video-sharing app through a full or partial ban of the app by all members of the alliance. There are concerns in Congress that the Chinese government could want to force ByteDance Ltd., the company that owns TikTok, to hand over user data, or to influence the videos that they watch.

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The U.S. government has given federal agencies 30 days starting on the first of March to remove TikTok from federal devices and systems. Both Canada and the United Kingdom have enacted similar restrictions in recent weeks, while New Zealand has banned the use of this software on devices that are connected to its Parliament.

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The ban was enacted on the advice of the intelligence and security agencies in Australia, which are responsible for overseeing all devices issued by the federal government departments and agencies, said Attorney General Mark Dreyfus. Before, it was up to individual departments to decide whether employees could install the app on their devices or not.

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“This direction will be implemented as soon as practicable,” Mr. Dreyfus said in response.

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In the U.S., the federal government as well as the vast majority of state governments, as well as the European Union, have banned the use of TikTok by government employees on their work devices.

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As TikTok put it, Australia's decision was a result of politics, and neither the government nor its company had responded to its offer of constructive engagement, which TikTok called a constructive engagement.

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“It is clear that no evidence exists to suggest that TikTok is in any way a security risk for Australians and [it] should not be treated differently from other social media platforms,” said Lee Hunter, the general manager of TikTok in Australia and New Zealand.

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TikTok has said that the U.K., Australian, and New Zealand users' data is stored in the United States and Singapore, and that access to it is tightly controlled. Moreover, the company has stated that it has not disclosed user data to the Chinese government and that it would not do so if it were requested to do so by Beijing.

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Among all the apps available in 2022, TikTok was by far the most popular app in the world, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, as well as New Zealand, according to the analytics company AppMagic. The app is ranked No. 2 in Australia, before the official app that allows people to access government services, according to AppMagic.

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It has been argued by some Australian lawmakers that a government-wide ban on TikTok should be the first step in the process of a broader review of TikTok in the country.

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It has been suggested that the government needs to develop a policy, as well as possibly a regulation that will protect ordinary Australians who use the app, said James Paterson, an upper house member with a cybersecurity portfolio for the opposition Liberals.

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“It's one thing to get the app off government devices, but it's also important that all those private citizens are protected, particularly because they might be exposed to a chance of foreign interference in our democracy by using the app.” Mr. Paterson said on Tuesday in a radio interview.

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As long as there are no protections in place, it is possible for the Chinese government to instruct TikTok to suppress content that doesn't coincide with its narrative, or elevate content that does coincide with it, he said.

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In the United States, the Biden administration recently demanded that TikTok's Chinese owners sell their stakes if they wish to avoid a potential ban on the company. It has been said that Beijing will oppose any attempt by the United States to force such a sale through.

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As diplomatic relations begin to heal after a prolonged standoff, it would be inappropriate for Australia to ban TikTok on government devices at a time when diplomatic relations have begun to improve.

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A previous center-right government strained ties between China and the United States in 2018 when it banned Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp., two of China's largest telecom equipment companies, from participating in the rollout of 5G telecommunications infrastructure, citing national security concerns. Malcolm Turnbull, then the prime minister of Australia, had been approached by American officials months earlier to raise concerns about Huawei with the government.