Premier Peter Malinauskas announces TikTok ban for government phones
The Chinese-owned social media app TikTok has been banned from all SA government phones – with some exceptions.
SA News
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TikTok has been banned from all state government-issued phones, Premier Peter Malinauskas has announced.
The Chinese-owned social media app was this week banned on federal government phones following a review of security risks.
Mr Malinauskas said he had received a briefing from the state’s chief information officer, who advised him of a recommendation to implement the ban at a state level.
But he said the restriction would apply only to the app itself, not to use of TikTok accounts.
“The state government is banning TikTok on government-issued mobile devices. We are not banning the use of TikTok,” he said.
“That’s an important distinction. There may be government agencies, government employees, politicians who have TikTok accounts that can be maintained but what can’t be used is a TikTok app on a government-issued device.”
Mr Malinauskas has more than 13,000 followers on his TikTok account, which he confirmed he had no plans to delete.
He said there would be some exemptions to the ban, and added there was no indication of any risk to members of the public who use TikTok.
The federal ban, implemented based on the risk of espionage, will apply to all government and department-issued devices.
After that ban was signed, Victorian Premier Daniels said he would delete his TikTok account.
Mr Andrews said he was still awaiting key information about the ban, but indicated Victorian politicians and public servants with government phones would be expected to comply.
“As we had indicated, we will follow the national policy settings because it’s most important, I think, when it comes to these issues of national security, that, wherever we can, we have one policy, we have one framework that operates across our country,” he said.
The NSW state government said it was also in discussions with the Commonwealth about the ban.
Read related topics:Peter Malinauskas