Australia must make ‘critical’ move on TikTok as US moves towards banning app
Australia has been warned it must ‘urgently’ investigate its next moves after the US made a major move towards banning TikTok.
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A TikTok ban is “highly likely” to pass the United States congress before the year is done, sparking “critical” warnings Australia not be left behind.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday voted unanimously 50-0 to advance a Bill, that, if passed, would prohibit TikTok from US app stores unless the platform is divested from its Chinese parent company ByteDance within 165 days.
It’s the most significant and aggressive legislative progress on TikTok to date, and should it pass, would impact the app’s 170 million US users.
It could have implications on how Australia deals with the popular social media app moving forward.
The Coalition’s cybersecurity spokesman, James Paterson, has long fought for Australia to take action on the app, over concerns about foreign interference and censorship.
He said the onus was now on Australia to “urgently” investigate its next moves.
Although the app is not based in China itself, its parent company ByteDance is part-owned by a Chinese company that is beholden to Chinese security laws.
Of specific concern is the requirement that data must be shared with the Chinese government if it is requested.
So concerned was the Albanese government that it banned the app on all government devices last year.
Senator Paterson said the Albanese government needed to go further, and must be proactive in the wake of the news out of the US.
“It is absolutely critical that Australia is not left behind – but that is a major risk unless we also act,” he said.
“The Albanese government must urgently investigate options to ensure TikTok Australia can also be protected from Chinese government influence. Otherwise we are allowing an authoritarian government to control the major source of news and information about the world for young Australians.
“Given what we have learned about TikTok’s manipulation of content and abuse of data, the government must act to protect Australians from this serious national security threat.”
TikTok has repeatedly maintained that ByteDance is 60 per cent owned by international investors and not influenced by the Chinese government.
TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew was grilled by US politicians last March, where he stated “unequivocally” that neither the app or the parent company were “an agent of China or any other country”.
A spokesman for Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil said the government was “monitoring progress” on the US bill.
“The Albanese government has taken strong action in line with advice from our agencies to restrict access to TikTok on devices used to handle sensitive information,” they said.
“We are monitoring the progress of the bill in the US and will take additional action if and when relevant agencies advise it is appropriate to do so.”
A TikTok spokesperson said the US bill, if passed, would “trample the First Amendment rights of 170 million Americans”.
“It would deprive five million (American) small businesses of a platform they rely on to grow and create jobs,” they said.
The bill will next move to the US House of Representatives, and if it passes will then progress to the Senate. If it is voted through there, it will become law.
Originally published as Australia must make ‘critical’ move on TikTok as US moves towards banning app
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