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TikTok not approved by Australian defence department in latest setback for short video platform’s global push
- TikTok overtook Facebook and Messenger to become the second most downloaded app in 2019, behind WhatsApp, also owned by Facebook
- Short video platform is banned by the US military
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Coco Fengin Guangdong
The Australian defence department has taken a similar stance to the US in not approving the use of short video app TikTok on devices used by its military personnel.
Guidelines published in April last year by the Australian Government’s Cybersecurity Centre said “whitelisting” was one of the government’s major cyber threat mitigation strategies, which “can contribute to the identification of attempts by an adversary to execute malicious code”.
“The TikTok application is not used” and has not been “whitelisted”, a spokesperson for the Australian Department of Defence said in a written response to the Post.
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TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
TikTok, operated by Beijing-based Bytedance, has exploded in popularity over the past two years, becoming a rare example of Chinese internet success on the global market. It overtook Facebook and Messenger to become the second most downloaded app in 2019, behind WhatsApp, also owned by Facebook. However, its rapid expansion has generated a backlash among US regulators and lawmakers over national security and privacy concerns.
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