New Zealand’s parliament will ban TikTok from all parliamentary devices, amid mounting international security concerns surrounding the app.
The country’s MPs were informed by the parliamentary service on Friday that the Chinese-owned video-sharing app would be blocked from all parliamentary devices at the end of the month, and were told via email that “the Service has determined that the risks are not acceptable in the current New Zealand parliament environment”.
“The decision to block the TikTok application has been made based on our analysis and following discussion with our colleagues across government and internationally,” the email reads.
New Zealand’s decision follows similar rulings by some of its major western allies. Earlier in the week, the UK government announced that TikTok would be banned, effective immediately, from ministers’ and civil servants’ mobile phones. The US, Canada, and the European Commission already had a ban in place.
TikTok is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance, and concerns surrounding its security have centered on whether the Chinese state could access data recorded by the app’s billion users, or manipulate the algorithm to push pro-China content.
TikTok has denied its data or algorithms can be accessed or manipulated by the Chinese government, saying it has not been asked for data and would refuse any future requests.
In recent months, however, as relationships with Beijing have been strained by the shooting down of Chinese surveillance balloons, a number of western countries have introduced bans on the app on parliamentary devices – with the US going a step further, to consider an outright ban on the app.
In early March, the White House said it supported legislation that would allow the administration to ban TikTok and other foreign-based technologies completely if they pose national security threats.
The New Zealand ban does not specifically cover MPs’ personal phones, but those phones must have the app uninstalled in order to access any parliament applications.
A number of New Zealand MPs use TikTok to post political videos and commentary. Among the most prolific are Te Pāti Māori leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, and Act party leader David Seymour. The Māori party had not responded to requests for comment by time of publication.
A spokesperson for Act said the party’s TikTok account “is run from a personal phone free of parliamentary information. We have been taking this precaution for some time.”
"Based on this information, the Service has determined that the risks are not acceptable in the current New Zealand Parliamentary environment,” he said.
Special arrangements can be made for those who require the app to do their jobs, he added.
ByteDance did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Speaking at a media briefing, Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said New Zealand operated differently from other nations.
"Departments and agencies follow the advice of the (Government Communications Security Bureau) in terms of IT and cybersecurity policies ... we don't have a blanket across the public sector approach," Hipkins said.
Both New Zealand's defense force and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Friday they had already implemented bans on TikTok on work devices.
A spokesperson for the New Zealand Defence Force said in an email to Reuters the move was a "precautionary approach to protect the safety and security" of personnel.
On Thursday, Britain banned the app on government phones with immediate effect. Government agencies in the U.S. have until the end of March to delete the app from official devices.
TikTok has said it believes the recent bans are based on "fundamental misconceptions" and driven by wider geopolitics, adding that it has spent more than $1.5 billion on rigorous data security efforts and rejects spying allegations.
Responding to a question about the TikTok bans from Britain and New Zealand, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said during a regular news briefing on Friday that the two countries should "stop over-extending and abusing the concept of national security, and provide a fair and non-discriminatory environment to companies from all countries."
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