TikTok has been removed from some government-owned devices in New Zealand, which has now been added to the expanding list of nations and regions to do so. Contrary to other places, not all government personnel are subject to the restriction. Although the country’s defence force and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade claimed they had also blocked TikTok on work devices, it is only available on devices with connection to New Zealand’s parliamentary network.
By March’s end, the prohibition will be in effect. For people that require access to TikTok in order to perform their duties, there might be some exceptions.
Following recommendations from cybersecurity experts and discussions inside the government and with other nations, officials took the action. Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, chief executive of the parliamentary service, told Reuters that “the Service has determined that the risks are not acceptable in the current New Zealand Parliamentary environment.”
The reason that New Zealand restricted the ban to gadgets connected to the parliamentary network was explained by the country’s prime minister, Chris Hipkins: “Departments and agencies follow the advise of the (Government Communications Security Bureau) in terms of IT and cybersecurity rules… We don’t have a general methodology that applies to the public sector, he remarked.
In the past few months, the US, dozens of states, Canada, and the European Commission have also banned TikTok on devices they own. Earlier this week, the UK announced an immediate TikTok ban on government devices, saying users of such devices would only be able to use third-party apps that are on an approved list.
Officials in many countries have expressed concern that TikTok’s parent company ByteDance (which is based in Beijing) may be required to share sensitive user information, such as location data, with China for alleged national security reasons. As with those other jurisdictions, New Zealand is restricting government access to TikTok due to security concerns.
TikTok has tried to allay privacy concerns in the US and Europe by routing traffic from each territory to domestic servers and carrying out third-party security and data audits, despite ByteDance’s declaration that it wouldn’t share user data with China, according to US officials.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew has argued that data protection projects the company has set up in the US and Europe “are the real solutions,” despite the fact that a whistleblower has asserted that there are flaws in the projects. this week, the company said that the US told ByteDance to sell the app or TikTok could face a nationwide ban.
In the meantime, reports this week suggested that the FBI and the Department of Justice are looking into ByteDance after four employees used TikTok to snoop on the locations of two US journalists. ByteDance fired the four individuals in December and claimed they were looking for the sources of leaks to the reporters.
