Australia to ban TikTok on official devices

The Australian government on Tuesday decided to ban its officials from using the Chinese video-sharing application TikTok on their devices.

In a statement, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said that he has authorized the issuance of a mandatory direction to prohibit the Chinese app on devices by Commonwealth departments and agencies.

"After receiving advice from intelligence and security agencies, today I authorized the secretary of the Attorney-General's Department to issue a mandatory direction under the Protective Security Policy Framework to prohibit the TikTok app on devices issued by Commonwealth departments and agencies," said Dreyfus.

"The direction will come into effect as soon as practicable," Dreyfus added.

The attorney-general said that exemptions will only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security mitigations in place.

Australia was the last country in the "Five Eyes", an intelligence alliance comprising Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and US, to ban their officials from using Chinese app on their professional devices.

TikTok's officials in Australia called the decision "disappointing."

"We're extremely disappointed with this decision. In our view, this is driven by politics and not by fact," ABC news quoted TikTok general manager in Australia, Lee Hunter, as saying.