Japan bans TikTok on government electronics

The Japanese government announced on Tuesday a ban on the use of the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok on Japan's government electronic devices when confidential information is dealt with on them.

The government, in a written response approved at the cabinet meeting, said that the TikTok application is not installed on any of the smartphones and other government devices used by ministers, state ministers and deputy ministers, according to the Japanese news agency "Jiji Press".

This came in response to a question from Kensuke Onishi, a lawmaker from Japan's main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party.

The government clarified that it does not allow the use of external applications on government agencies to handle confidential information.