The Australian government has become the latest organisation to ban the Chinese social media app TikTok over security concerns.

Australia’s attorney general, Mark Dreyfus issued the directive, which will prevent the use of the app on devices issued by the country’s departments and agencies, according to reports by the Guardian newspaper.

Dreyfus said that the ban would come into force “as soon as practicable” and that “exemptions will only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security mitigations in place”.

National Technology News has reached out to TikTok for comment.

The ban follows similar decisions taken by other governments around the world.

In New Zealand, MPs were informed via email that the app would be blocked from all parliamentary devices by the end of the month, while the Danish public-service broadcaster DR advised employees not to use TikTok on their devices after a security review and warnings from Denmark’s Centre for Cyber Security.

The Canadian Government has also banned TikTok on government devices, while the EU Commission has similarly banned TikTok from both corporate and personal devices over cybersecurity concerns.

In Scotland, members of parliament and employees working in Holyrood were “strongly advised” to remove the app from their devices. Last month the UK government banned TikTok on work devices citing the need to keep sensitive information secure.

The ByteDance-owned company recently announced new security measures due to fears over how user data is shared with China. These include storing data locally and using an external security firm to monitor data flows.

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