The TikTok app registration page is displayed on a mobile phone in front of a screen with the company’s logo in Sydney, Tuesday, April 4, 2023.
Rick Rycroft/AP
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Rick Rycroft/AP
The TikTok app registration page is displayed on a mobile phone in front of a screen with the company’s logo in Sydney, Tuesday, April 4, 2023.
Rick Rycroft/AP
CANBERRA, Australia – Australia has become the last security partner of “Five Eyes” to ban Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok from federal government devices.
Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said in a statement Tuesday that based on the advice of intelligence and security agencies, that ban will take effect “as soon as possible.”
The so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing partners — the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand – did the same steps.
TikTok is owned by Chinese technology company Bytedance and has long insisted that it does not share data with the Chinese government. It is working on a project to store US user data in Texas, which it says will put it out of reach of China.
The company also denies allegations that it collects more user data than other social media companies and insists that it is independently run by its own management.
The European Parliament, the European Commission and the EU Council, the three main institutions of the 27-member bloc, have also imposed a ban on TikTok on employees’ devices. Under the European Parliament’s ban that went into effect last month, lawmakers and staff are also advised to remove the TikTok app from their personal devices.
India imposed a nationwide ban on TikTok and dozens of other Chinese apps, including messaging app WeChat, in 2020 due to privacy and security concerns. The ban came shortly after a clash between Indian and Chinese troops at the disputed Himalayan border that left 20 Indian soldiers dead and dozens injured.
In early March, the US gave government agencies 30 days to remove TikTok from federal devices and systems. The ban only applies to government devices, although some US lawmakers are advocating an outright ban.
China has criticized the US for banning TikTok, calling it an abuse of state power and cracking down on companies from other countries.
More than half of the 50 US states have also banned the app from official devices, as well as Congress and the US armed forces.
