AUSTRALIA TO BAN TIKTOK ON GOVERNMENT DEVICES

Tue 04 Apr 2023:

On Tuesday, the Australian government decided to forbid its employees from using TikTok, a Chinese video-sharing app, on their mobile devices.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced in a statement that he had approved the issuance of a mandatory directive for Commonwealth departments and agencies to forbid the Chinese app from being installed on devices.

“After receiving advice from intelligence and security agencies, today I authorized the secretary of the Attorney-General’s Department to issue a mandatory direction under the Protective Security Policy Framework to prohibit the TikTok app on devices issued by Commonwealth departments and agencies,” said Dreyfus.

“The direction will come into effect as soon as practicable,” Dreyfus added.

The attorney-general said that exemptions will only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security mitigations in place.

Australia was the last country in the “Five Eyes”, an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and US, to ban their officials from using Chinese app on their professional devices.

TikTok’s officials in Australia called the decision “disappointing.”

“We’re extremely disappointed with this decision. In our view, this is driven by politics and not by fact,” ABC news quoted TikTok general manager in Australia, Lee Hunter, as saying.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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