The decision was informed to the country’s MPs by
parliamentary service on Friday.
Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael
Gonzalez-Montero said the decision was taken after advice on risks involved
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 in an email.
Prime minister Chris Hipkins said New Zealand operated differently
from other nations.
“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,” he
said in a news conference.
New Zealand’s decision to ban Beijing-based ByteDance owned
platform comes amid heightening national security concerns.
It came on the heels of a similar decision taken by major
western allies following the US government’s decision to ban the app from
federal devices and systems over data security concerns and is considering an
outright ban on the app.
The UK government on Thursday banned the app on government
phones with immediate effect over concerns that sensitive data held on official
phones could be accessed by the Chinese government.
European Union and Canada also have restrictions in place
for TikTok on government-issued devices due to security risks.
On Friday, Mr Gonzalez-Montero told lawmakers that the video
sharing app would be removed from their corporate devices till 31 March and
they will not be able to download it again on their devices.
But those who require to “perform their democratic duties”
may be granted permission as an exception, he said.
He added that the failure to comply with the instructions to
delete the app would restrict them from accessing the parliamentary network.
New Zealand’s both defence force and Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Trade confirmed on Friday that they have implemented the ban on
work devices.
A spokesperson for the New Zealand Defence Force said in an
email to Reuters the move was a “precautionary approach to protect the safety
and security” of personnel.
The fears over use of Beijing-based platform stems from
concerns that Chinese government could be accessing data collected from the
app’s billion of users or manipulation of algorithm to push pro-China content.
TikTok has denied that its data is shared or accessed or manipulated by the Chinese government and said it believes the recent bans are based on “fundamental misconceptions”.
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