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Ammon News - TikTok will be banned on government devices in Australia, authorities said on Tuesday as the Island nation joined a growing list of countries blacklisting the Chinese-owned app due to national security fears.

Attorney General Mark Dreyfus said the decision followed advice from the country's intelligence agencies and would begin “as soon as practicable”.

Australia is the last member of the secretive Five Eyes security alliance to pursue a government TikTok ban, joining its allies the US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand.

France, the Netherlands and the European Commission have made similar moves.

The app is used to share short, lighthearted videos and has exploded in popularity in recent years.

Many government departments were initially eager to use TikTok as a way to connect with a younger demographic that is harder to reach through traditional media channels.

Mr Dreyfus said the government would approve some exemptions on a “case-by-case basis” with “appropriate security mitigations in place”.

Cyber security experts have warned that the app ― which boasts more than a billion global users ― could be used to hoover up data that is then shared with the Chinese government.

However, TikTok ― which is owned by the Chinese technology company Bytedance ― has long maintained that it does not share data with the Chinese government.

It is carrying out a project to store US user data in Texas, which it says will put it out of China’s reach.

The company also disputes accusations it collects more user data than other social media companies and insists that it is run independently by its own management.

The company's Australian spokesman, Lee Hunter, said it would “never” give data to the Chinese government.

“No one is working harder to make sure this would never be a possibility,” he told Australia's Channel Seven.

Surveys have estimated that as many as seven million Australians use the app ― or about a quarter of the population.

In a security notice outlining the ban, the Attorney General's department said TikTok posed “significant security and privacy risks” stemming from the “extensive collection of user data”.

The security concerns are underpinned by a 2017 Chinese law that requires local firms to hand over personal data to the state if it is relevant to national security.

Beijing has denied these reforms pose a threat to ordinary users.

China “has never and will not require companies or individuals to collect or provide data located in a foreign country, in a way that violates local law”, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said in March.

TikTok has said such bans are “rooted in xenophobia”, while insisting that it is not owned or operated by the Chinese government.

But the firm acknowledged in November that some employees in China could access European user data, and in December it said employees had used the data to spy on journalists.

Fergus Ryan, an analyst with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said stripping TikTok from government devices was a “no-brainer”.

“It's been clear for years that TikTok user data is accessible in China,” Mr Ryan told AFP.

“Banning the use of the app on government phones is a prudent decision given this fact.”

New Zealand banned TikTok from government devices in March, saying the risks were “not acceptable in the current New Zealand Parliamentary environment”.

Earlier this year, the Australian government announced it would be stripping Chinese-made CCTV cameras from politicians' offices due to security concerns.

While influencers with large followings on the app fear that such bans could harm their livelihoods, users on the app have responded to government probes into the security with revelry.

When US politicians in March gave TikTok's CEO Shou Zi Chew a rough grilling over potential Chinese influence over the platform, clips of the more bizarre questioning went viral on the app.

These included a question from North Carolina representative Richard Hudson over whether TikTok accesses home Wi-Fi network to which Mr Chew said “only if the user turns on the Wi-Fi”.