Australia Reportedly Bans TikTok From State Devices—Here Are The Other Governments Banning The App

Topline

Australia will ban social media platform TikTok from government employees’ work devices, Australian outlets reported Monday, joining the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and a group of countries in Europe in restricting the controversial China-owned app over national security and data privacy concerns.

The UK announced it will ban TikTok from government devices effective immediately.

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Key Facts

TikTok will be banned on all Australian state devices, including phones and computers, following an order from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese Monday, The Australian reported Monday.

Civil Service Minister Stanislas Guerini said France will ban TikTok and other apps from the phones of state officials, citing concerns that the app does not have sufficient cybersecurity and data protection to be used on devices.

A spokesperson for the U.K. parliament—citing cybersecurity concerns—said Thursday that TikTok will be blocked from all parliament devices and any device accessing its network.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney said Thursday the Scottish government will ban the app from all devices accessing its network effective immediately, following discussions with the British government.

Cabinet Office minister Oliver Dowden said all devices used by British government employees would be unable to access TikTok—and the devices will only be able to access pre-approved third-party apps.

TikTok will be deleted from all devices with access to the New Zealand parliament network, according to an announcement, at the request of the country’s cybersecurity experts—though New Zealand’s defense force and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade have already implemented similar bans.

The European Commission—the European Union’s executive branch—banned TikTok from its staff members’ phones late last month, noting the ban was put in place to protect against cybersecurity threats, and the elected European Parliament announced a similar ban a week later following a review by cybersecurity officials..

Belgium’s National Security Council banned TikTok from the work phones of government officials, as Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said the company is “mandated to cooperate with Chinese intelligence services.”

Canada also banned TikTok from government-issued devices over national security concerns last month, though Canadian Treasury Board President Mona Fortier said there was no evidence that any government information had been compromised, according to Reuters.

Lawmakers in the United States approved a ban on TikTok from federal devices in December, and U.S. agencies have until March 20 to remove the app from all government-issued devices, following similar moves by many state governments.

Contra

Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s foreign ministry, defended TikTok and ByteDance Friday following testimony by TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, suggesting the “Chinese government has never asked and will never ask any company or individual to collect or provide data, information or intelligence located abroad against local laws.”

Surprising Fact

India was the first to ban TikTok and other Chinese-owned applications nationwide in a June 2020 decision. The Indian government said the apps were “stealing and surreptitiously transmitting user data” outside of India, according to the New York Times.

Key Background

Efforts to ban TikTok—owned by the Chinese firm ByteDance—have ramped up in recent months, as the app faces increased scrutiny amid fears the Chinese government could access users’ data. Whistleblowers from both companies told both Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and the Washington Post that TikTok employees can easily toggle between U.S. and Chinese data with limited approvals, a claim TikTok has disputed. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS) has investigated TikTok for years, though some lawmakers have encouraged the agency to conclude its probe. The agency recently threatened to ban the app in the U.S. unless TikTok’s China-based shareholders sold their stakes in the company.

Chief Critic

TikTok told Forbes that forcing ByteDance to divest “doesn’t solve the problem,” adding that a “change in ownership would not impose any new restrictions on data flows or access.” To combat data privacy concerns, TikTok said it would enable a new policy—referred to as “Project Clover” in Europe and “Project Texas” in the U.S.—that would require the company to store user data locally and prohibit data from leaving Europe and the U.S., respectively.

What To Watch For

Lawmakers in the U.S. have introduced bipartisan legislation that would allow the Commerce Department to ban certain foreign technology that poses an “undue or unacceptable risk” to Americans. Though the bill does not explicitly mention TikTok, senators cited it as a potential threat.