The Australian government has banned the use of Chinese social media app TikTok on government devices, following similar bans in other western countries.
The attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said he had authorised the secretary of his department to issue a mandatory direction to prohibit the TikTok app on devices issued by commonwealth departments and agencies.
“The direction will come into effect as soon as practicable,” he said. “Exemptions will only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security mitigations in place.”
According to the protective security direction issued with the ban, the government states TikTok “poses significant security and privacy risks to non-corporate Commonwealth entities arising from extensive collection of user data and exposure to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government that conflict with Australian law.”
Last month the government received a review from the Department of Home Affairs on the security risks of all social media platforms and the correct government settings.
Over half of all federal government agencies currently ban TikTok from government devices, but the overarching policy will ensure consistency across the government.
The states and territories were advised of the planned ban on Monday.
A Victorian government spokesperson said it would work to adopt the new restrictions on the use of TikTok, while a New South Wales government spokesperson said Cyber Security NSW would continue discussions with the federal government on the new position.
TikTok was not informed about the proposed ban prior to it being leaked to media, the company’s Australia and New Zealand general manager Lee Hunter said. He said in a statement that TikTok was “extremely disappointed” by the decision, which the company said was “driven by politics, not fact”.
“Again, we stress that there is no evidence to suggest that TikTok is in any way a security risk to Australians,” he said, adding that it should not be treated differently to other social media platforms.
“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 shadow cybersecurity minister, James Paterson, told Sky News the government had been “very very late” in implementing the ban on government devices.
The federal opposition had long been calling for the government to act, despite the Coalition failing to do so when in government less than a year ago. Paterson said most of the revelations around security concerns with TikTok and the subsequent government device bans by governments including the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand only occurred in the past few months.
Paterson indicated the opposition would now push for a review on the use of TikTok on personal devices including opening up the possibility of a national ban – something the United States is currently considering.
“It’s good that it’s going to be banned from government devices because it removes that espionage risk to public servants,” he said. “But the data privacy and security risks and also the foreign interference risks that affect millions of Australians using the platform are so far and yet not to be dealt with and they have to be dealt with.”
He said that an outright ban of TikTok should be on the table because it could potentially force TikTok’s parent company ByteDance to consider divesting the company from Chinese control.
Several MPs, including environment minister Tanya Plibersek and Labor MP Julian Hill, still use TikTok on nongovernment devices. Paterson said he does not use the app, and government services minister Bill Shorten and Victorian premier Daniel Andrews announced on Tuesday they would stop using TikTok.
But Greens senator David Shoebridge said the ban wasn’t a serious reform because its focus was too limited.
“If we’re not careful it will just be the first hammer blow in an endless game of online whack-a-mole,” he said. “We’re in a data security and privacy crisis and we’re fixated on one platform.
“The data security issues for TikTok are mirrored in pretty much every other social media platform, the difference is that our government is not running a fear campaign against the governments that host those platforms.”
