TikTok to be banned on government devices, Attorney-General confirms

Australia has made a major decision on whether to ban the viral video app TikTok from government officials’ work devices.

Australian officials must delete viral video app TikTok from work devices following advice from intelligence and security agencies.

In a statement, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the ban would come into effect as soon as practicable.

“Exemptions will only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security mitigations in place,” he said.

Mr Dreyfus’ confirmation comes after a security review into social media apps, including TikTok, was handed to the government last month.

The Attorney-General said the review’s recommendations, which have not been made public, were still being considered by the government.

The Albanese government will ban TikTok from all official government devices. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Tim Pascoe

It’s understood the review will not be considering a broad ban of any social media apps for the everyday Australian.

TikTok is the first social media hit to come out of China and boasts more than one billion active users globally.

But concerns that Australian data could be handed over to the Chinese government under its national security laws had sounded the alarm over the app owner Byte Dance’s links to Beijing.

A number of government departments had already prohibited the app from work devices. Australia is the last of the Five Eyes partners to ban the app from public servants’ devices.

In a statement ahead of the ban’s confirmation, TikTok Australia and New Zealand general manager Lee Hunter said the decision was “driven by politics, not fact”.

“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,” Mr Hunter said.

The opposition’s cyber security spokesman James Paterson, said his biggest concern was TikTok’s links to the Chinese Communist Party. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Tim Pascoe

“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.”

Last year, one of the nation’s top spy chiefs, Rachel Noble, said Australians should consider getting a second phone should they want to use apps like TikTok.

TikTok maintains there is no evidence to suggest the app constitutes a security concern.

Opposition cyber security spokesman James Paterson welcomed the ban but questioned why it took the government so long to act.

“If the government acted when I first called for them to do so, Australia would have led the world tackling this cyber security threat, as we did when in August 2018 we banned Huawei from our 5G network,” 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.”