The Australian government has banned TikTok from official devices over security concerns, joining the growing list of countries cracking down on the Chinese short-video platform.
The ban was announced by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus on Tuesday following advice from intelligence and security agencies, according to international media reports. Dreyfus remarked the ban would be imposed “as soon as practicable”.
TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based tech conglomerate ByteDance, appears to be failing at defending its case in the global regulatory market.
The platform has drawn intense scrutiny over its potential ties with the Chinese government, raising concerns that TikTok might be forced into handing over sensitive user data from both sides of the Atlantic to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) under the country’s strict laws.
The security concerns were fuelled following ByteDance’s revelations that some of its staff based in China could access personal data of European citizens. The revelations caused regulators and lawmakers to spring into action, calling for an investigation into the reports of possible data transfers and calling for nationwide bans against TikTok.
Lee Hunter, TikTok’s general manager for Australia and New Zealand, said the company is “extremely disappointed by this decision” and, in their view, the ban is “driven by politics”.
“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,” the manager said.
TikTok has already been suspended from official devices by the EU institutions, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK.
Since its revelations about Chinese access to European data, TikTok has been trying to pacify lawmakers and regulators, dismissing the widespread concerns related to its handling of user data, and reiterating that sensitive information is safe at the firm.
In an attempt to placate apprehensive policy advisers, the company recently launched a data security program titled Project Clover. It will monitor data flows outside Europe by a third-party company in addition to user data being stored locally on servers in Ireland and Norway.
The project will cost ByteDance over a billion dollars a year.
