Skip to content

Global Times: Australia and NATO Issued Ban on TikTok

Global Times recently reported that Australian media disclosed earlier that, on April 4th, Australian Prime Minister Albanese approved a ban on the use of TikTok on equipment within the Australian government, and notified the state and territory governments about the ban. They are expected to follow suit. The Australian government decided that the ban will target all government-issued equipment, citing a so-called “espionage risk.” The move is in line with Australia’s “Five Eyes” partners – the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand. The Australian Federal Attorney General declared in a statement that this decision was made on the advice of intelligence and security agencies and that the ban will come into effect as soon as it is practical. TikTok denied there are security issues and said the app poses no risk to Australian users.

Earlier, Global Times also reported that two people familiar with NATO said that NATO officials sent a notice to all staff in the organization on March 31st, announcing the prohibition of downloading and using the short video social app TikTok on NATO-provided equipment on the grounds of so-called “security considerations.”

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson stated that China has always maintained that data security issues should not be used as a tool to generalize the concept of national security and unreasonably suppress companies from other countries.

Source: Global Times, April 4 and March 31, 2023
https://world.huanqiu.com/article/4CLwKcdRX1L
https://m.huanqiu.com/article/4CJMAljHzeB