Sydney, 4 April 2023 (dpa/MIA) - Australia has followed other Western countries and banned the video-sharing app TikTok from lawmakers' devices due to security concerns, the federal government announced on Tuesday.

In a statement, Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said the decision had been made following advice from intelligence and security experts.

"The direction will come into effect as soon as practicable," he said. The ban would apply to all devices issued by Commonwealth departments and agencies.

"Exemptions will only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security mitigations in place," Dreyfus said.

TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has already been banned on government-issued devices in Canada, New Zealand, Britain and the US, amid cybersecurity concerns.

The app has more than a billion users worldwide and is widely used in the US and Europe, fuelling fears that Chinese authorities and secret services might use the app to collect information from users or to spread influence. The company has rejected such allegations.