Australia has also finally banned the use of China’s video app TikTok on government equipment. With this, it has become the last country in the so-called ‘Five Eyes’ intelligence alliance of the US, Canada, Britain and New Zealand to ban the use of TikTok on government equipment.

Attorney General Mark Dreyfuss said in a statement on Tuesday that the ban would go into effect “as soon as possible” on the advice of intelligence and security agencies. TikTok has objected to this decision.

The company’s general manager for Australia, Lee Hunter, said in a statement: “We are deeply disappointed by this decision which we believe has been made on the basis of politics and not fact. We reiterate that there is no evidence to show that TikTok is in any way a threat to the safety of Australian citizens and should not be treated any differently from other social media platforms.’

He urged the Australian government to treat all businesses fairly, ‘regardless of their country of origin’. Western governments are concerned that TikTok poses a threat to cyber security and data privacy and that the app could be used to promote pro-Beijing perceptions and misinformation.

TikTok is owned by Chinese technology company ByteDance and says it does not share data with the Chinese government. The European Parliament, the European Commission and the Council of the European Union have also banned TikTok.

MPs and staff have been advised to remove the TikTok app from their personal devices as part of the European Parliament’s ban. India banned several other Chinese apps including TikTok and messaging app WeChat in 2020 over privacy and security concerns.