New Zealand bans TikTok on MPs’ phones

March 17 () –

The New Zealand Parliament has announced that the TikTok app will be banned from all MPs’ phones, following in the footsteps of other Western countries that have introduced restrictions on the use of the platform on government devices.

The application, owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, cannot be installed on the smartphones of legislators as of next month, since “the risks” of the data collected by TikTok being used by the Chinese government “are not acceptable” , has assured the executive director of the parliamentary service, Rafael González-Montero, in statements collected by the RNZ chain.

“On the advice of our cyber security experts, the parliamentary service has informed members and staff that the TikTok application will be removed from all devices with access to the parliamentary network,” said González-Montero, who has announced exceptions for the deputies who require the application to perform “democratic functions”.

Chinese-owned TikTok has also been banned from government-issued devices in countries including Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States, all amid cybersecurity concerns.