April 5, 2023
Kathryn Birmingham and Clare Armstrong
The Adelaide Advertiser
Wednesday 5 April 2023
Premier Peter Malinauskas will take advice from SA's chief information officer before deciding to ban TikTok on state government phones.
Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus on Tuesday confirmed Labor would mandate a ban on politicians and public servants downloading TikTok on government issued devices, and was considering further recommendations made in a review by the Department of Home Affairs.
Aksed if South Australia was considering taking the same action, Mr Malinauskas said "the short answer is yes".
"Later this afternoon I will be speaking to the state's chief information officer and I'll be taking their advice, and we'll make decisions quickly," he said.
"Already I don't have TikTok on my phone for security reasons, on the back of a briefing that I received from the federal goverment lsat year."
Mr Malinasukas has more than 13,000 followers on his TikTok account.
The federal ban, implemented based on the risk of espionage, will apply to all government and department issued devices.
After the ban was signed, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said he would delete his TikTok account. The NSW state government said it was also in discussions with the Commonwealth about the ban.
The ban brings Australia into line with its Five Eyes security partners, but the Albanese government is not following the US in considering a total TikTok ban.
Opposition cyber security spokesman Senator James Paterson welcomed the app's prohibition on government devices, but said "all options need to be on the table" when asked if it should be extended. "TikTok is owned by ByteDance, a company which is very close to the Chinese Communist Party and is subject to the intelligence laws of China," he said.
