Sydney: Australia is all set to announce a ban on TikTok on government phones this week.
Several other nations have been discussing the security concerns over the Chinese-owned video app. The United States, Britain, New Zealand, Canada, Belgium, and the European Commission have already banned it from government devices.
The Home Affairs department has been reviewing the use of TikTok and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese agreed to it. A report in The Age newspaper said that Victoria state will also ban the short video app from government phones.
TikTok Australia general manager Lee Hunter said the company was disappointed to learn of the ban through the media even after repeated offers to "engage with the government constructively about this policy." The Age quoted him saying, "We stress that there is no evidence to suggest that TikTok is in any way a security risk to Australians and should not be treated differently to other social media platforms."
TikTok is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance. The West has been fretting over important data landing in the hands of the Chinese government. India has already imposed a complete ban on TikTok.