NZ Just Banned TikTok What You Need to Know Before its too Late

A person holds a smartphone as Tik Tok logo is displayed behind in this picture illustration taken November 7, 2019. Picture taken November 7, 2019. /Dado Ruvic/Illustration

WELLINGTON, March 17 () - New Zealand said on Friday it would ban TikTok on devices with access to the country's parliamentary network due to cybersecurity concerns, becoming the latest nation to limit the use of the video-sharing app on government-related devices.

Concerns have mounted globally about the potential for the Chinese government to access users' location and contact data through ByteDance, TikTok's Chinese parent company.

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The depth of those concerns was underscored this week when the Biden administration demanded that TikTok's Chinese owners divest their stakes or the app could face a U.S. ban.

Parliamentary Service Chief Executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said in an email to that the decision was taken after advice from cybersecurity experts and discussions within government and with other countries.

Based on this information, the Service has determined that the risks are not acceptable in the current New Zealand Parliamentary environment, ” he said.

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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 defence force and 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 the move was a precautionary approach to protect the safety and security of personnel.

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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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Reporting by Lucy Craymer in Wellington, Lewis Jackson and Renju Jose in Sydney and Josh Ye in Hong Kong; Editing by Anne Marie Roantree, Muralikumar Anantharaman, Edwina Gibbs and Gerry DoyleThe country’s MPs were informed by 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 own 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.

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TikTok is owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance, and concerns surrounding its security have centred 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.

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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.”New Zealand has become the latest country to ban TikTok from certain government devices due to security concerns. The ban will apply to devices that have access to New Zealand’s parliamentary network, as well as those used by the country’s defense force and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The ban will come into effect by the end of March, although there may be exceptions for those who need access to TikTok to carry out their jobs.

The move comes after advice from cybersecurity experts and discussions with other countries. Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, parliamentary service chief executive, said that “the risks are not acceptable in the current New Zealand Parliamentary environment.” New Zealand’s prime minister, Chris Hipkins, explained that the ban was limited to devices linked to the parliamentary network, as departments and agencies follow the advice of the Government Communications Security Bureau in terms of IT and cybersecurity policies.

New Zealand is not alone in banning TikTok on government devices. The UK recently announced an immediate ban, allowing users of such devices to only use third-party apps that are on an approved list. The US, dozens of states, Canada, and the European Commission have also banned TikTok on devices they own.

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The reason for the bans is security fears. Officials in many countries are concerned that TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, based in Beijing, may be compelled to share sensitive user information with China for national security reasons. ByteDance has denied this, but US officials have claimed that the company would legally have to comply if the government demanded the information. TikTok has tried to address privacy concerns by routing traffic from each territory to domestic servers and conducting third-party security and data audits.

TikTok’s troubles do not end with government bans. The company recently announced that the US told ByteDance to sell the app or face a nationwide ban. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew argued that divesting the company would not resolve politicians’ security concerns and that data protection projects set up in the US and Europe were “the real solutions.” However, a whistleblower has claimed that there are flaws in the US plan that could allow China to theoretically access data of American TikTok users.

Reports also suggest that the FBI and the Department of Justice are investigating ByteDance after four employees used TikTok to snoop on the locations of two US journalists. ByteDance fired the four people in December and said they were trying to locate the sources of leaks to the reporters.

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In conclusion, New Zealand has joined other countries in banning TikTok on government devices due to security concerns. The ban will apply to devices linked to the parliamentary network, as well as those used by the defense force and Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The move comes after advice from cybersecurity experts and discussions with other countries. TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, has denied sharing sensitive user information with China, but officials in many countries remain concerned.The TikTok app has been effectively banned on the phones of New Zealand MPs with the Parliamentary Service chief executive citing that the “risks are not acceptable” as similar moves are made across the globe.

Overnight, Britain said it would ban the Chinese-owned video app on government phones with immediate effect, a move that follows other Western countries over security concerns.

Early today, an email from Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, leaked to Newstalk ZB, informed New Zealand MPs that similar moves would be made here.

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TikTok has come under increasing scrutiny worldwide due to concerns that user data from the app owned by Beijing-based company ByteDance could be accessed by the Chinese government, threatening Western security interests.

Gonzalez-Montero’s email stated that Parliamentary Service had been examining the use of the TikTok application on corporate devices following “recent decisions made internationally to ban use of this application”.

With agreement from the Parliamentary Service Commission, Parliamentary Service had decided to block the TikTok application on all Parliamentary Service-managed devices from Friday, March 31.

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“The decision to block the TikTok application has been made based on our own analysis and following discussion with our colleagues across government and internationally.

Stuff recently reported at least nine organisations do not authorise the use of the app on government devices, including the Defence Force, which in November last year ordered staff to wipe it from their phones.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said there was not a “blanket approach” to such issues across the public sector as in other countries.

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