Australia announced Tuesday it will ban TikTok on all government-issued devices over security concerns about the Chinese-owned video sharing app.
Australian Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said the order “will come into effect as soon as practicable” in an official statement. He added exemptions may be granted on a case-by-case basis, but it remains unclear what the criteria for those exemptions will be.
All members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence group — the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Britain and Australia — have banned the app on government-issued devices, Reuters reported. The European Parliament, European Commission and the European Union (EU) Council have all announced similar bans, according to Fox Business.
“There is no evidence to suggest that TikTok is in any way a security risk to Australians and should not be treated differently to other social media platforms,” Lee Hunter, TikTok’s general manager in Australia, said in a statement, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
An Australian supporter waves the Australia flag during the final T20 women’s World Cup cricket match between South Africa and Australia at Newlands Stadium in Cape Town on February 26, 2023. (Photo by Marco Longari / AFP) (Photo by MARCO LONGARI/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. lawmakers have flagged concerns over potential national security threats posed by TikTok’s state-owned Chinese parent company, ByteDance, and its alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress in March and argued the CCP has never accessed data from U.S. users. He also emphasized the platform is currently working on transferring all U.S. user data to a Texas-based server, ostensibly out of the Chinese state’s reach, according to an interview with The Wall Street Journal. (RELATED: China Is Attempting To Influence US Kids By Offering An ‘Opium Version’ Of TikTok, Expert Says)
India has also banned TikTok and dozens of other Chinese-based apps, such as the messaging app WeChat, over security concerns, according to the BBC. The Biden administration told government staffers in March they had to delete TikTok on all federally issued mobile devices within 30 days, CBS News reported.
The armed forces and more than half of U.S. states had banned the app on state devices as of January, according to Insider. Some state schools, such as the University of Texas, have blocked students from accessing the app on campus wifi networks.