Written by staff writer.
The Australian Government is banning the TikTok app on devices issued by Commonwealth departments and agencies. Attorney General Mark Dreyfus announced the decision on April 4, 2023, and said it would come into effect “as soon as practicable.”
The Australian Government was the last of the Five Eyes nations to ban the app amid growing fears it could be used for foreign interference purposes. A protective security directive accompanying the announcement said the TikTok app “poses significant security and privacy risks to non-corporate Commonwealth entities arising from extensive collection of user data and exposure to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government that conflict with Australian law.”
The directive says departments and agencies must not install the app and erase existing installations on government-issued devices unless there is a legitimate business reason to use it. In this case, the department or agency’s chief security officer must approve using the TikTok app. “Exemptions will only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security mitigations in place,” said Dreyfus.
The short-form mobile video app is widely used by Australian politicians at the federal and state levels. TikTok is owned by a Beijing-based company called ByteDance. There are growing concerns in multiple jurisdictions that ByteDance may be required to provide the Chinese Government with data, including location data, about TikTok’s users. Under Chinese national security laws, China-based entities must comply with Chinese Government data requests.
TikTok has over one billion active monthly users. Last year, Tik Tok said there were over 2.85 million Australian users, a figure the company expects to grow to almost four million by 2026.
TikTok was not given advance notice of the Attorney General’s decision and denies the app is a security risk. “We’re extremely disappointed with this decision. In our view, this is driven by politics and not by fact,” said Tik Tok’s Australian General Manager, Lee Hunter. “Our millions of Australian users deserve a government which makes decisions based upon facts and who treats all businesses fairly, regardless of country of origin.”
During Tuesday’s Chinese Foreign Ministry media briefing, spokesperson Mao Ning criticised the Australian Government’s decision. “China always believes that digital security should not be used as a tool to suppress foreign companies in an overstretch of the concept of national security and abuse of state power,” she said. “We urge Australia to earnestly observe the rules of market economy and the principle of fair competition, and provide a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese companies.”
But Shadow Minister for Cyber Security, Senator James Paterson, welcomed the decision. “I have been calling on the government to address this serious issue since July 12 2022, when TikTok admitted in correspondence to me that Australian user data was accessible in mainland China,” he said.
“Now that this risk is being addressed, we must urgently turn our attention to the broader cyber security and foreign interference threat posed by TikTok to the millions of other Australian users. State and territory governments should now follow and also ban TikTok from their government-issued devices.”
The Attorney General’s decision does not forbid Commonwealth politicians and employees from using TikTok on their personal devices.
