TikTok Australia responds to ‘not credible’ ban reports

The viral app’s local general manager said reports the app could be banned were not credible and the concerns were overblown.

The boss of TikTok in Australia has responded to reports the government is looking into banning the app, saying they aren’t credible.

The reports dominated the news yesterday, spurred by aHerald Sun piece quoting an unnamed federal MP who accused the app of being a disguised attempt to gather data by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the threat wasn’t being taken seriously.

TikTok Australia’s director of public policy Brent Thomas told news.com.au that the reports weren’t credible.

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Viral video app TikTok is under increased scrutiny by government’s around the world. Picture: Lionel Bonaventure / AFP

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He also questioned the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, also quoted in the piece, over its disclosure of “receipt of foreign funding to publish its reports”.

On Monday afternoon, TikTok Australia’s general manager Lee Hunter addressed the reports as well, and said the high level of concern wasn’t warranted.

“TikTok does not share information of our users in Australia with any foreign government, including the Chinese Government, and would not do so if asked,” Mr Hunter said.

“We place the highest importance on user privacy and integrity.”

He backed up Mr Thomas’ criticism that the report was based on unnamed sources supported by a questionable think tank (in fact several of Mr Hunter’s comments were word-for-word the same as the one’s received from Mr Thomas earlier on Monday).

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TikTok Australia general manager Lee Hunter has been in the job less than a month.

The report also mentioned TikTok could be called before a Senate inquiry into foreign interference on social media, which Mr Hunter said he’s ready to do.

“We always welcome the opportunity to meet with policy makers to talk about TikTok, including the steps we’re taking to make it an even safer and more creative place,” Mr Hunter said.

Members of the City Youth Organisation in Hyderabad burn TikTok logos in support of the Indian government’s ban. Picture: Noah Seelam/AFP

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who is often roasted on the app, told 2GB listeners on Monday Australians need to consider where all of their data goes, not just the data collected by the government (as was the case with the recent launch of the buggy COVIDSafe app).

“People have to be quite conscious in this digital age that all of these platforms, they all go back to places and people are knowingly handing over their data,” he said. “I think it’s right for people to have an increased awareness of where these platforms originate and the risks they present.”

The concerns over TikTok primarily relate to the fact that it’s owned by a Chinese company and some government’s are suspicious, fearing it could be linked to the ruling CCP.

India recently banned the app and other Chinese owned apps.

A street vendor holds up a shirt with a TikTok logo in New Delhi, India — where the app was recently banned. Picture: Sajjad Hussain/AFP

TikTok is owned by ByteDance.

The app has been exploding in popularity in recent months and has begun expanding around the world, seeking to literally and figuratively distance itself from ByteDance’s Chinese offices.

Mr Hunter said the concerns over user data getting into the hands of the CCP are overblown and the data isn’t stored on Chinese servers.

“TikTok Australia user data is stored in Singapore,” he said.

“Similar to industry peers, we will continue to drive our goal of limiting the number of employees who have access to user data and the scenarios where data access is enabled,” he added.

Mr Hunter said there was already controls in place to protect user data and that TikTok “will continue to focus on adding new technologies and programs focused on global data residency, data movement, and data storage access protections worldwide.”

TikTok has about 1.6 million, predominantly young users in Australia.