March 3, 2023
Bans on TikTok on government-issued devices in the U.S., the European Union and Canada are prompting lawmakers in some of Washington’s main intelligence-sharing allies to demand that their countries follow suit.
Australia and New Zealand haven’t banned TikTok across all government agencies, instead leaving it to individual departments to decide whether their employees can install the app. Australian government departments—including defense—prohibit the installation of TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd., but some lawmakers say the lack of a blanket ban creates unnecessary national security risks.
The U.K. also hasn’t unveiled a ban on TikTok for work devices, prompting some prominent British lawmakers to urge the government to reconsider its stance.
“We run the risk of becoming a laggard amongst free and open countries on this issue,” said
Alicia Kearns, chairwoman of the U.K. Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
Last month, the European Commission—the European Union’s executive arm—banned its staffers from using TikTok on work-issued devices, a move that came amid concerns from U.S. and European lawmakers that Beijing could force TikTok to hand over data on its users, or to influence the videos they view.
At the same time, Canadian regulators opened a probe into the platform’s privacy practices. And this week, Canada banned the TikTok app from government-issued devices, citing an unacceptable level of risk to privacy and security.
In the U.S., the federal government and most states have similarly banned employees from using TikTok on government-owned devices.
A TikTok spokesperson said U.K., Australian and New Zealand user data is stored in the U.S. and Singapore and access to it is tightly controlled.
“We have never shared user data with the Chinese government, nor would we if asked,” the spokesperson said.
In 2022, TikTok was the most downloaded app in the world, including in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and New Zealand, according to analytics fi rm AppMagic. It was the second-most downloaded app in Australia, behind the country’s official app that lets people accessgovernment services, AppMagic said.
In the U.K., a government spokesman said departments have processes in place to secure government devices, including managing risks from third-party applications.
The U.K. hasn’t unveiled a TikTok ban on government phones, but people familiar with the matter say this is essentially a nonissue because few civil servants would have the app on their work devices. Government employees must provide a business reason and go through bureaucracy to install less controversial apps, such as WhatsApp, on work devices, they said.
Still, the British government has taken warnings from some members of Parliament into consideration. Last year, a group of lawmakers wrote to Parliament’s presiding officers to express concerns over the institution’s new TikTok account. The officers responded by saying they weren’t consulted about the account, which was a pilot eff ort, and that after considering the lawmakers’ concerns, they decided to immediately close it.
The different approaches taken by the U.S. and its allies toward TikTok raise questions about how much of the thinking behind the recent bans has been shared between partners. Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. are part of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing network, which also includes Canada and the U.S.
James Paterson, an upper house lawmaker in Australia who holds the cybersecurity portfolio for the opposition Liberal party, said on Thursday that the country was falling “dangerously behind” like-minded countries such as Canada and Denmark, where parliament this week urged lawmakers to remove TikTok from work devices.
Mr. Paterson is concerned that Australian user data could be accessed by the Chinese Communist Party and its intelligence agencies.
For Australia, banning TikTok on government devices risks angering Beijing just as diplomatic relations begin to heal after a prolonged standoff.
Ties were strained in 2018 when a previous center-right government banned China’s Huawei Technologies Co. and ZTE Corp. from participating in the rollout of 5G telecommunications infrastructure on national security grounds. American officials had months earlier raised concerns about Huawei with
Malcolm Turnbull, who was then Australia’s prime minister.
That same year, the U.S., which had already effectively banned Huawei from major U.S. business opportunities, started lobbying Britain and other allies to blacklist Huawei as well.
The U.K. in 2020 initially balked at Washington’s pressure, creating tensions between the countries that had long touted their “special relationship.” The U.K. reversed course six months later, citing new American sanctions on Huawei. British telecommunication providers now have until 2027 to remove Huawei 5G equipment from their networks.
In a television interview on Wednesday, Australian Treasurer said the government’s policy toward TikTok hasn’t changed because the country’s national security agencies haven’t requested it.
“No doubt our colleagues in the agencies will be considering that and factoring that into their own thinking. But the advice to us hasn’t yet changed,” Mr. Chalmers said.
In September, Australia’s Department of Home Affairs launched a review of the security risks posed by social-media companies and the settings which govern them, but it hasn’t concluded yet.
New Zealand has also faced a tricky balancing act between its longstanding ties and security alliance with the U.S. and its trade relations with China. The country’s signals intelligence agency, known as the Government Communications Security Bureau, doesn’t give specific advice on what technology platforms or apps can be used on government devices.
Still, government agencies are expected to follow a manual that requires them to mitigate risks when considering the use of new platforms, services or apps, said Andrew Little, the minister responsible for the bureau.
