Following similar moves from other Western countries, the Australian Government has banned the social media app TikTok on all government devices. It’s a big step up from the bans in individual federal/state departments over the past couple of months, and it’s all to do with security… The main concern surrounding TikTok is what the Chinese-owned company does with user data and whether the Chinese government can access it. The company has gone to great lengths to answer those questions, but not to the satisfaction of many governments. Attorney General Mark Dreyfus issued the mandatory direction yesterday and said it would come into effect “as soon as practicable”. He says, “exemptions will only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security mitigations in place”. TikTok’s Aussie boss Lee Hunter says he hasn’t heard from the government, and the “extremely” disappointing decision is “driven by politics and not by fact”.