Apr. 4: Australia has joined other Western countries to ban the use of TikTok on government devices.
The US, Britain and Canada have already announced same, while New Zealand’s parliament also ordered the app be removed from all devices with access to the government.
Norway and the European Parliament have made similar moves, and last week NATO banned staffers from downloading the app onto NATO-provided devices.
Lee Hunter, general manager of TikTok in Australia and New Zealand, said that the company is extremely disappointed by this decision, which is driven by politics. He also stressed that the firm had reached out to the Australian government for constructive engagement while maintaining that there had been no evidence to suggest the app posed a security risk to the country.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has said that the Chinese government had never asked TikTok for its data and that the company would refuse any such request. For its part, China’s Commerce Ministry said it would oppose any decision resulting in the forced sale of TikTok.
