February 2, 2023
Two federal departments have banned staff from downloading TikTok on work phones, but given no reason for the ban, nor said whether it extends to other social media networks as fears grow overseas about the security of the Chinese-owned service.
The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water and the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry confirmed in answers to parliament that their employees were forbidden from downloading TikTok on work devices, joining the Departments of Defence and Home Affairs.
Late last year US President Joe Biden signed a law with bipartisan backing that barred American federal public servants from having TikTok on their work devices because of security concerns.
Spokespeople for the federal agriculture and environment departments confirmed the bans but would not say when they were implemented or why, and refused to answer questions about whether the prohibition extended to all other social media applications.
A spokesman for TikTok said: “We understand these restrictions apply to a range of social media and messaging apps, not just TikTok.”
This masthead revealed on Tuesday that the Victorian Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action had banned TikTok because of fears it could be used to surveil employees. The department reversed the decision following media queries just a day after the ban was announced internally.
Liberal Senator James Paterson, who uncovered the federal departments’ policies through parliament, said the Victorian banning and unbanning of TikTok was “utterly bizarre” in light of the federal moves.
“If TikTok is not safe to be on the phone of a federal environment, energy and climate bureaucrat, why should it be permitted on the phone of their state colleagues working on the same issues?” said Paterson, who is the opposition’s cybersecurity spokesman. “The Victorian government should urgently explain this about-face.”
A spokeswoman for the Victorian government said it had not banned TikTok, saying the Australian Cyber Security Centre regularly gave guidance to departments on best practice. "The Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action has confirmed with its staff that it will not be implementing changes to the existing availability of social media or messaging tools on department devices," the spokeswoman said.
A spokesman for the federal department of agriculture confirmed its TikTok ban and said it regularly reviews its IT rules. An environment department spokesman added that its IT services were provided by the agriculture department.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil has previously said her department was conducting a wide-ranging review of TikTok and other social media apps as Australia faces the challenge of a new wave of digital giants based in authoritarian countries.
“The fact that we’ve got millions of Australians accessing an app where the usage of their data is questionable is very much a modern security challenge for the country and no country in the world has found the easy solution for managing this," O'Neil said last year.
That review is ongoing and TikTok has consistently vigorously defended its data security practices, saying it has strict policies to protect users, stores their data in the United States and Singapore and would never share it with the Chinese government.
TikTok has said in the past it collects less information on users than other popular apps, which it uses to keep its app operating and improve users’ experience.
But the company has previously also confirmed that overseas employees – including in China, which has wide-ranging national security laws that could compel firms to aid the government – can access Australian user data. TikTok has previously said access is tightly constrained and overseen by US-based personnel.
In its general advice to Australian users, the government’s Australian Cyber Security Centre warns many social media and messaging services – from WhatsApp to LinkedIn, TikTok and Pinterest to WeChat – collect extensive data and may store it offshore, where it could be accessed by foreign powers outside Australian privacy law.
