<div style="text-align: justify; "><b style="font-size: 1rem;">New Zealand lawmakers and other workers inside the nation's Parliament will be banned from having the TikTok app on their government phones, officials said Friday.</b><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The ban, which takes effect at the end of the month, follows similar moves in many other countries.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, New Zealand's ban will apply only to about 500 people in the parliamentary complex, not to all government workers like bans in the U.S. and Britain. Other New Zealand agencies could decide later to impose their own bans.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Global concern about the app comes after warnings by the FBI and other agencies that TikTok's Chinese parent company ByteDance could share TikTok user data — such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers — with China’s authoritarian government.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said he didn't have TikTok on his phone.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I'm not that hip and trendy,” he told reporters.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The New Zealand move came on the advice of government cybersecurity experts, said Parliamentary Service Chief Executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He said the app would be removed from all devices with access to the parliamentary network, although officials could make special arrangements for anybody who needed TikTok to perform their democratic duties.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“This decision has been made based on our own experts’ analysis and following discussion with our colleagues across government and internationally," Gonzalez-Montero said in a statement. "Based on this information, the service has determined that the risks are not acceptable in the current New Zealand parliamentary environment.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Hipkins said cybersecurity advice came from New Zealand's intelligence agency, the Government Communications Security Bureau. He said New Zealand didn't take a blanket approach to all government workers, and it would be up to each department or agency to make cybersecurity decisions. AP</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>