Anthony Albanese has signed off a government-wide ban of TikTok on government and department-issued devices operated by politicians and public servants.
State and territory governments were reportedly briefed on the ban by the Commonwealth on Monday and are expected to follow suit with similar bans. A wider public ban of TikTok would not be applied.
The Australian confirmed with the government that it had issued the ban ahead of an expected announcement today or tomorrow. The ban would see the Australian government fall into line with the other “Five Eyes” intelligence network partners the US, UK, Canada and New Zealand.
“Senior” government sources told The Aus that a final decision on the ban had been made after several weeks of delay. There had been “concerns” within “some levels” of government that the delay had been prompted by political reasons.
However, sources “close to the Prime Minister” denied a deliberate delay despite having had a review by the Department of Home Affairs on his desk for several weeks.
One government source reportedly questioned whether the delay had been prompted by the Aston by-election and that electorate’s significant Chinese-Australian community.
TikTok’s general manager Australia and New Zealand, Lee Hunter, told The Aus that the company rejected claims it was a security risk.
“If confirmed, we are extremely disappointed by this decision, which, in our view, is driven by politics, not by fact,” said Hunter in a statement.
“We are also disappointed that TikTok, and the millions of Australians who use it, were left to learn of this decision through the media, despite our repeated offers to engage with government constructively about this policy.
“Again, we stress that there is no evidence to suggest that TikTok is in any way a security risk to Australians and we 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 which treats all businesses fairly, regardless of country of origin.”
The TikTok top brass is reportedly considering divesting the international version of the app from its Chinese parent company ByteDance following concerns about the app’s security.
Advertisers, meanwhile, are starting to become a little nervous about a TikTok ban — though more from a brand safety perspective, rather than security.
“I don’t think anyone truly believes that there is going to be a ban in Australia, that would be quite a hard thing to do and quite a lengthy process. But the general conversation about the ban and the banning of TikTok on government devices is actually making advertisers a little bit nervous and a bit more cautious about whether they should be on the platform. Is this a brand safety risk just being on the platform at all?” one agency exec told B&T.
