File picture of Australia’s Legal professional-Common Mark Dreyfus on March 30, 2023 in Canberra, Australia. … [+]
The federal government of Australia has banned the immensely well-liked social media app TikTok from all government-issued units, in response to an announcement by Australia’s Labor management. The nation joins the opposite 4 international locations within the so-called 5 Eyes intelligence sharing alliance—together with the UK, Canada, New Zealand and the U.S.—which already banned TikTok on authorities telephones.
Australia’s Legal professional Common, Mark Dreyfus, launched a press release on his web site saying the transfer early Tuesday, Australia-time.
“After receiving recommendation from intelligence and safety businesses, immediately I approved the Secretary of the Legal professional-Common’s Division to challenge a compulsory route underneath the Protecting Safety Coverage Framework to ban the TikTok app on units issued by Commonwealth departments and businesses,” Dreyfus stated in a press launch.
The Legal professional Common stated any potential exemptions to the TikTok ban would “solely be granted on a case-by-case foundation” and that “applicable safety mitigations” would have to be applied.
The brand new rule might be enforced “as quickly as practicable,” in response to Dreyfus.
President Joe Biden banned TikTok on all U.S. authorities units again in December 2022 and Canada banned TikTok from authorities telephones in February. Each the UK and New Zealand governments introduced their respective bans a couple of weeks in the past.
Final yr, TikTok was pressured to concede that the info of Australians may theoretically be accessed by the Chinese language authorities, in response to a report from Australia’s ABC Information, however the social media firm claimed that it had by no means occurred and by no means would occur.
“We now have by no means supplied Australian consumer information to the Chinese language authorities, we have now by no means been requested for Australian consumer information by the Chinese language authorities, and we’d not present it if we had been requested,” TikTok instructed the ABC.
Many allies of the U.S. have expressed concern concerning the potential for the Chinese language Communist Occasion to spy on their residents with the TikTok app, a cost the corporate denies. The U.S. authorities has floated the concept of TikTok’s mum or dad firm ByteDance spinning the entity off as a U.S.-based company, which might presumably quell spying fears. However the firm has been proof against that concept, claiming it wouldn’t handle any of the federal government’s issues.
The FBI has been investigating TikTok’s alleged spying exercise on journalists, together with reporters at Forbes, whereas many politicians on Capitol Hill have referred to as for TikTok to be fully banned within the U.S.
But it surely’s not clear whether or not a ban on TikTok can be constitutional, with some libertarian-minded Republicans like Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky insisting it wouldn’t be proper. It’s additionally not clear the place such a ban would depart the various different Chinese language-based apps presently accessible, like Temu: Store Like a Billionaire, which is presently primary within the Apple app retailer.
