New Zealand’s government has become the latest to ban TikTok on its devices due to security concerns about the app. The decision comes just a day after the UK decided to prevent the app’s installation on government-owned devices over concerns about the permissions that TikTok asks for.
As mentioned yesterday, the social media app is not being banned because it’s accused of leaking data or anything like that. Western governments, which do not always see eye-to-eye with the Communist Party of China, are wary about the sensitive data that TikTok could collect. Once collected, the data, it"s feared, could be abused by Chinese authorities.
The country is now seeking to ban TikTok on all devices with access to its parliament’s network by the end of this month. If any entities within the government would like to use TikTok for any promotional reasons to reach citizens then they will need to make special arrangements to use the app.
Earlier this week, the Biden administration told TikTok’s Chinese owners to divest their stakes in the app otherwise the US could ban it altogether. The founders of the platform own 20% of the shares, employees own another 20% and the global investing community owns 60% of the shares. For its part, TikTok said that it has spent $1.5 billion on data security and rejects that the app is dangerous for government officials.
Source: Reuters