Security News > 2023 > April > Australia takes its turn to kick TikTok off government kit

Australia has joined the growing list of nations that have decided TikTok represents an unacceptable risk when running on government-owned devices, so has decided not to allow it onto those machines.

Citing "Advice from intelligence and security agencies," attorney-general Mark Dreyfus today announced the national government will "Prohibit the TikTok app on devices issued by Commonwealth departments and agencies. The direction will come into effect as soon as practicable."

Which sounds like the usual provision to ensure that government accounts can continue to post to the platform to reach its immense audience - an inconsistency few governments have addressed.

Sino-Australian relations reached a low ebb in recent years, in part because Australia banned Huawei and ZTE from selling kit to local carriers.

A recent submission to Australia's Senate Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media, penned by a quartet of experts, asserted that TikTok's parent company ByteDance cannot be considered a private entity, so entangled with government has it become.

Rews today not only banned TikTok on government devices in the state he leads, but quit the platform himself.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/04/04/australia_tiktok_ban/