(ANSA-AFP) - WELLINGTON, MARCH 17 - New Zealand will ban the Chinese social network TikTok on the devices of members of Parliament, aligning itself with other Western countries that have adopted similar measures.
New Zealand officials announced today.
The ban will affect all devices with access to the parliamentary network, said Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, a parliamentary official.
It will go into effect on March 31st.
According to Gonzalez-Montero, the risks are "unacceptable in the current New Zealand parliamentary environment. The decision was made on the basis of analyzes by our own experts, after a discussion with our government and international colleagues", he added.
New Zealand will therefore follow the example of Canada, the United Kingdom and federal agencies in the United States, which have already banned TikTok from government devices due to data security concerns.
The European Commission has also ordered to ban the application for sharing videos from the devices of its employees.
Global action against TikTok began in India in 2020. The social network was on a banned apps list after deadly clashes on the border with China, with New Delhi claiming to defend its sovereignty.
That same year, former President Donald Trump accused TikTok of being a spy tool for Beijing.
TikTok has admitted that employees of its parent company ByteDance in China had access to Americans' account information, but it has consistently denied passing this data to authorities.
Current US President Joe Biden has threatened to completely ban the application from US territory if he doesn't part with ByteDance.
(ANSA-AFP).