CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – Australia is the most recent amongst “Five Eyes” safety companions to ban Chinese language video-sharing app TikTok from its federal government gear.
Legal professional Normal Mark Dreyfus mentioned in an announcement on Tuesday that the ban would go into impact “as soon as possible” based mostly on recommendation from intelligence and safety businesses.
The so-called 5 Eyes intelligence companions – america, Canada, Britain and New Zealand – have taken related steps.
TikTok, owned by Chinese language tech firm ByteDance, has lengthy claimed to not share knowledge with the Chinese language government. It’s working a mission to retailer US consumer knowledge in Texas, which is able to reportedly put it out of attain of China.
The corporate additionally denies allegations that it collects extra consumer knowledge than different social media firms and insists that it’s run independently by its personal administration.
The European Parliament, the European Fee and the Council of the European Union, the three fundamental establishments of the 27-strong bloc, have additionally banned TikTok on private devices. As a part of the European Parliament’s ban, which took impact final month, MPs and staffers have additionally been suggested to take away the TikTok app from their private devices.
India banned TikTok and dozens of different Chinese language apps nationwide in 2020, together with messaging app WeChat, over privateness and safety considerations. The ban got here quickly after a conflict between Indian and Chinese language troops alongside the disputed Himalayan border, which left 20 Indian troopers useless and dozens injured.
In early March, the US gave government businesses 30 days to wipe TikTok from government gear and techniques. The ban applies solely to government gear, though some US lawmakers favor an entire ban.
China has attacked the US for banning TikTok, saying it’s an abuse of state energy and oppression of firms in different nations.
Greater than half of the 50 US states have additionally banned the app from official devices, as have Congress and the US Armed Forces.
Rod McGuirk, The Related Press