The popular Chinese video-sharing app TikTok has been banned from all devices that can access the New Zealand Parliament’s network, the legislature’s chief executive has announced.
Wellington is the latest capital to follow the US in restricting its officials’ access to TikTok over data security concerns. Earlier this week, the British government banned British ministers and civil servants from using the app, which is owned by Beijing-based tech conglomerate ByteDance, with immediate effect.
On Friday, the head of New Zealand’s parliamentary service, Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, said the risks of the country’s MPs having TikTok installed on their phones were “unacceptable.”
“The parliamentary service has informed members and staff that the TikTok app will be removed from all devices with access to the parliamentary network,” he said.
According to Gonzalez-Montero, his service made the decision “based on the analysis of our own experts and following discussions with our colleagues across the government and internationally.”
Exceptions to the ban are possible for those who need the app to “carry out their democratic duties,” he added.
In a separate letter to lawmakers seen by the media, the chief executive said lawmakers should delete TikTok from their devices by March 31. Those who do not comply could lose access to the parliamentary network, Gonzalez-Montero warned.
Nationalist MP Simon O’Connor, co-chair of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), said the decision to ban the app was “a good one”.
“I – and IPAC as a whole – have had serious concerns about privacy for some time,” O’Connor told CNN. He also claimed that TikTok’s responses to his previous inquiries about how the platform handles data have been “unsatisfactory.”
The ACT Party, which has been actively using the Chinese app to promote its message, told the Guardian that it had anticipated the move. The party’s spokesman said that its TikTok account “is run from a personal phone that does not contain parliamentary information. We have been taking this precaution for some time.”
ByteDance has repeatedly denied Western spying claims, saying the Chinese government doesn’t have access to data from its more than 1 billion users and has never asked for it. Authorities in Beijing have accused the U.S. of “unfair competition” by “suppressing” TikTok, as well as “spreading disinformation about data security.”
