Australia bans TikTok on government devices

SYDNEY

Australia said yesterday it will ban TikTok on government devices, joining a growing list of Western nations cracking down on the Chinese-owned app due to national security fears.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the decision followed advice from the country’s intelligence agencies and would begin “as soon as practicable.”

Australia is the last member of the secretive Five Eyes security alliance to pursue a government TikTok ban, joining its allies the United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.

France, the Netherlands and the European Commission have made similar moves.

Dreyfus said the government would approve some exemptions on a “case-by-case basis” with “appropriate security mitigations in place.”

Cyber security experts have warned that the app, which boasts more than one billion global users, could be used to hoover up data that is then shared with the Chinese government.

Surveys have estimated that as many as 7 million Australians use the app, or about a quarter of the population.

In a security notice outlining the ban, the Attorney-General’s department said TikTok posed “significant security and privacy risks” stemming from the “extensive collection of user data.”

Fergus Ryan, an analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said stripping TikTok from government devices was a “no-brainer.”