New Zealand Joins TikTok Ban-wagon on Government Devices Due to Security Concerns

New Zealand joined the TikTok ban train on government devices on Friday, March 17, following similar moves made by the US, Canada, and the UK.

Lawmakers and workers inside New Zealand's Parliament will no longer be allowed to have the TikTok app on their government-issued mobile phones, according to a report by AP.

The ban will only apply to around 500 people working in the parliamentary complex, rather than all government workers. Other New Zealand agencies may choose to impose their own bans later on.

TikTok Banned from New Zealand

Global concern about the app comes after warnings by the FBI and other agencies that TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance could allegedly share TikTok user data - such as browsing history, location, and biometric identifiers.

TikTok was banned in New Zealand on the advice of cybersecurity experts. The app will be removed from all cell phones connected to the parliamentary network, but administrators have the discretion to provide exceptions to anyone who needs TikTok to carry out their democratic obligations.

Chris Hipkins, the prime minister of New Zealand, said that TikTok was not installed on his phone. He noted that the Government Communications Security Bureau, New Zealand's spy agency, provided cybersecurity guidance for the decision.

He stated that each department or agency would have to determine its own cybersecurity policies because New Zealand did not have a uniform approach to all government employees.

UK Bans TikTok

The UK government also recently announced that it would ban TikTok from all government and corporate-owned devices. Cabinet Office Minister Oliver Dowden said that there could be an obvious danger surrounding how some platforms access and utilize sensitive government data, according to Britain's cybersecurity specialists.

He added that smartphone apps capture a lot of users' personal information, such as their contacts and whereabouts, which could be sensitive to government equipment. Britain's action aligns with similar policies in the USA and EU.

At the end of February, the White House ordered federal agencies to remove TikTok from all government-issued computers and mobile devices within 30 days.

The European Commission (EU) also issued a ban on using TikTok across all EU institutions, both on company-issued and personal devices.

The increasing scrutiny of TikTok's potential security risks is causing concern among various countries and agencies worldwide.

Lawmakers in Washington, for instance, have raised concerns that personal information about US TikTok users could be accessed by the Chinese government. In response to these worries, TikTok has announced a partnership with American firm Oracle to keep all US data on Oracle's cloud, thus addressing these concerns.

However, ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, was ordered to sell its stake in TikTok by the US Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), which threatened to prohibit the app within the country, effectively closing off the vast American market for TikTok.