The move follows in the footsteps of other countries and blocs that have imposed restrictions on the use of TikTok such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
By iProfessional
04/04/2023 – 09.13 hrs
Australia Banned the use of the Chinese social network TikTok on mobile phones and government devices for cybersecurity reasons and fear of possible “foreign interference,” its attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, announced Tuesday.
The attorney general made the decision “after receiving advice from intelligence and security agencies,” he said in a statement, after the recent statement by the director of the intelligence service, Mike Burgesswho pointed out in front of a Senate committee that social networks are used to “spread disinformation.”
Dreyfus added that the ban will take effect “as soon as possible”, and clarified that his office will only allow exceptions to the installation of this short video application “on a case-by-case basis and with adequate security measures” to avoid any risk of data theft. data. For the private users and companiesthe attorney general recommended that they “access the recommendations” published on a government portal.
Australia’s move follows in the footsteps of other countries and blocs that have imposed restrictions on the use of TikTok such as the United States, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the European Union due to the fear that the Chinese authorities may violate the right to privacy through the data collected in this application.
TikTok, an application launched in September 2016 by the Chinese company ByteDance that allows you to make short videos with mobile devices with millions of views, is one of the favorites by young people around the world as a distraction or to obtain news information.
Australia has maintained tense relations with China since 2018, which it is trying to normalize, as a result of the previous Conservative government vetoing Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE to participate in the oceanic country’s fifth-generation (5G) mobile wireless communications networks.
TikTok is one of the most popular social networks in the world.
Tension between Australia and China
It also maintains strong laws and security measures against foreign interference, with a long-standing focus on Beijing on suspicion that the Asian giant is trying to influence its domestic policy.
In February, the Australian government decided to remove nearly a thousand security cameras made by Chinese companies from its buildings. Hikvision and Dahua, linked to the Chinese Communist Party, at the risk of being used for espionage.
In 2019, The Guardian reported that TikTok was instructing its moderators to censor videos that mentioned Beijing’s Beijing Plaza. Tiananmen and other unfavorable images for the Chinese regime. The platform said it has since changed its moderation practices.
ByteDance admitted in December that it fired four employees who accessed data from two journalistsas well as others connected to them, while trying to trace the source of a leaked report about the company.
TikTok tried to distance itself from its Chinese origins, saying that its parent company, ByteDance, is 60% owned by global institutional investors such as Carlyle Group.
ByteDance was founded by Chinese businessmen in Beijing in 2012. In response to a report by The Wall Street Journal, China he said he would oppose any attempt by the United States to force ByteDance to sell the app.
