![ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, whose government has agreed to a TikTok ban. Picture by Elesa Kurtz ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr, whose government has agreed to a TikTok ban. Picture by Elesa Kurtz](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/35sFyBanpD896MKnAH5FRtj/7d1a54f9-cd9d-4661-b8ea-b6a62f2dec3d.jpg/r0_74_4172_2420_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Public servants in the ACT have been told to remove TikTok from their work-issued devices, after the territory government agreed to a ban of the social media video sharing app.
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The government agreed to the ban at a security and emergency management meeting of the ACT's cabinet on Wednesday.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr, Attorney-General Shane Rattenbury and Special Minister of State Chris Steel issued a joint statement on Wednesday afternoon to confirm the widely expected ban.
"The territory government recognised the benefit of national consistency in matters related to cybersecurity and the protection of government data," the ministers said in a statement.
"The ban will take effect immediately, following a message that was sent to all [ACT public service] employees this afternoon.
"At this point in time, the ban will not extend to the installation of TikTok on the personal devices of employees who also use these devices as part of their work with ACT government."
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The ministers said staff would continue to receive training on the appropriate use of personal devices at work, and information on how to remove TikTok from any government-issued devices.
Federal Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus on Tuesday confirmed the Commonwealth would ban the app, which is owned by a Chinese company, from government-issued devices.
TikTok Australia and New Zealand said the move was "driven by politics".
The app's local general manager, Lee Hunter, said the company was "extremely disappointed by the decision".
Mr Barr last month acknowledged work was under way across states and territories to assess whether the video-sharing social media app, which is owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance, posed a risk when installed on government smartphones.
"We're certainly not holding out a flame that the ACT will be the only government that allows TikTok on phones, but equally I'm not waging a war against TikTok," Mr Barr said at the time.
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