New Zealand bans TikTok from government devices | New Zealand

New Zealand’s parliament plans to ban TikTok from all parliamentary devices amid growing international security concerns surrounding the app.

The country’s parliamentarians were informed by the parliamentary service on Friday that the China-owned video-sharing app would be blocked from all parliamentary devices at the end of the month, and were notified by email that: in the current New Zealand parliamentary environment”.

“The decision to block tick tock The application was made based on our own analysis and discussions with colleagues across government and internationally,” the email reads.

New Zealand’s decision follows similar rulings by some of its key Western allies. at the beginning of the week UK government announces ban on TikTok, will be effective immediately from mobile phones of ministers and civil servants. America, Canada, European Commission A ban had already been issued.

TikTok is owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance, and its security concerns stem from whether the Chinese government can access the data recorded by the app’s billion users, or whether it manipulates algorithms to make it pro-China. I’m focused on whether I can push the content of . TikTok denies that its data and algorithms could be accessed or manipulated by the Chinese government, says it has not been asked for data, and will decline future requests.

However, due to strained relations with the Chinese government in recent months, Chinese surveillance balloon shot downSince then, many Western countries have introduced bans on the app on congressional devices. He said he would support legislation that would allow the administration to ban outright based technology if it poses a national security threat.

New Zealand’s ban does not specifically target lawmakers’ personal phones, but those phones must uninstall the app in order to access parliamentary applications.

Many New Zealand lawmakers use TikTok to post political videos and commentary. The most prolific were Te Pati Maori leaders Debbie Ngarewa Packer and Rawiri Waititi, and Akto party leader David Seymour. The Maori Party did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication. An Act spokesperson said his TikTok account for the party “has no information from Congress and is run from a personal phone. We’ve been taking this precaution for some time.”