Nationals senator Ross Cadell claims TikTok bullied, intimidated staff
TikTok has been accused of intimidating a senator’s office while he was asking questions during a hearing on the social media ban.
A Nationals senator has accused a TikTok staffer of intimidation and branded the social media platform a “bullying behemoth”.
During a key hearing into the enforcement of Australia’s social media ban, the Chinese-owned platform was singled out by senator Ross Cadell, who accused the social media giant of bullying and intimidation, claiming a TikTok staff member contacted his office while he was in a previous hearing related to the legislation.
He claims the TikTok staffer said: “We get on very well with the leader’s office, we get on very well with the shadow minister’s office. You shouldn’t be asking these questions.”
In response, content and safety public policy lead Ella Woods-Joyce said on Tuesday she “wasn’t aware of the details” of the allegations.
“What I can say is that the team needs to operate professionally and appropriately at all times, and I have confidence that that’s what we do,” she said.
Senator Cadell also questioned why the Chinese-owned social media platform had aggressively lobbied the Australian government to rewrite the blanket under-16 ban to include YouTube.
“Is TikTok not just a bullying behemoth that wants to get its own way at any cost?” he said.
Earlier this year, Communications Minister Anika Wells reversed the government’s pre-election pledge to exclude YouTube from the incoming legislation after lobbying from senior TikTok executives, including Ms Woods-Joyce, who represented the company during Tuesday’s hearing.
“We take a very transparent approach to all of the work that we do and very happy to share details of our concerns around the legislation and also our compliance strategy because at the end of the day we acknowledge we are captured by the law that the committee is here to speak about,” Ms Woods-Joyce told the committee.
Senators blow up over social media ban
The hearing was briefly derailed after two senators broke out into an argument over a “snitch line” feature for parents.
Senator Cadell asked Meta, TikTok and Snapchat executives whether the platforms had developed a tool for parents to “dob their kids in” if parents had no ability to shut down their children’s accounts.
Before the platforms could respond, Greens senator David Shoebridge quietly scoffed: “Are you serious?”
Mr Cadell quickly responded in the affirmative and was halfway through questioning Mr Shoebridge before the Greens politician said: “I don’t think you should have a dob-in-a-child line.”
At this point, committee chair Sarah Hanson-Young was forced to intervene between the two politicians.
“The questions are for our witnesses, you guys can debate in your own time,” she said.
Mr Cadell then accused Mr Shoebridge of trying to “avoid the law” before Senator Hanson-Young again interrupted to demand order.
The Tuesday hearing was into the Internet Search Engine Services Online Safety Code, known informally as the social media ban, and run by the Environment and Communications References Committee.
Deactivate or delete options
Earlier in the hearing, social media companies shed light on how Aussie teens would be able to save their memories before the world-first platform ban takes effect.
Meta, TikTok and Snapchat would initially freeze accounts for children who are 15 years and under on December 10 in compliance with Australia’s social media ban, the inquiry was told.
Archiving memories, like existing posts, photos and videos, will be a part of TikTok and Snapchat’s process of freezing accounts when the ban kicks into effect in early December.
For TikTok users, several options would be available to affected teen users, including the ability to deactivate an account, place it in a state of suspension, or delete the account, in which case an archive feature would be available, Ms Woods-Joyce said.
“We also want to make sure that we’re communicating really clearly with our community about what they can expect and when they can expect it,” Ms Woods-Joyce said.
Snapchat would implement a tool called Download My Data, which would secure photos and communications before accounts were disabled and locked, Snapchat global policy senior vice-president Jennifer Park Stout said.
“Now, if you are a user who is able to establish that they are over 16, they will have an opportunity to do that through a variety of ways,” Ms Stout said.
“They will have to verify their age through an age assurance mechanism that will be done in the most privacy protective way possible, but it would require the user to provide identification, indicating that they are 16 and above, go through a series of steps, and then they would then have access to their account.”
Meta would also provide the choice between deactivation and temporary pauses of young people’s accounts, Meta ANZ director of policy Mia Garlick said.
“We’re still working through the precise wording and flows, but we’ll certainly be providing people with notice … there’s deletion, which would remove the account, but deactivation will just temporarily pause it,” she said.
“So we’re looking through a range of different options, but making sure that there is very clear notice to young people and their parents so they can take the actions that work best for them.”
The platform, which owns Instagram and Facebook, would enforce the minimum age limit with third-party provider Yoti, where people are given the option either of a video selfie, an age estimation approach or providing government identification, Ms Garlick said.
Originally published as Nationals senator Ross Cadell claims TikTok bullied, intimidated staff
