TikTok facing pressure over potential China data gathering
An Australian TikTok director has responded to reports the app could be banned in Australia over perceived links to China.
Viral video app TikTok has been accused of being a data gathering arm of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in news reports quoting an unnamed federal parliament member.
The mysterious MP is quoted in a Herald-Sun report that said the government is facing pressure to ban the app, as was recently done in India.
TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, though it has been taking steps to distance itself from that by opening offices around the world as it expands globally.
Its Chinese owner has become somewhat of a liability for the TikTok brand as regulators around the world accuse it of being linked to the CCP.
In addition the unnamed MP, the report quotes the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) think tank’s Fergus Ryan, who claims the CCP has a hold over the app and even has “cells inside the company”.
TikTok Australia’s newly minted director of public policy Brent Thomas told news.com.au the reports were “not credible”.
“This is a news report based on an unnamed source, supported by an organisation which has disclosed the receipt of foreign funding to publish its reports,” Mr Thomas said, referring to ASPI, “so it’s not credible”.
The app was accused of hiding sinister (and for the most part unproven) links to the CCP behind a fun facade, which Mr Thomas said was the reason so many Australians love the app.
“Consumers love TikTok in Australia, precisely because we focus on providing an experience that is safe as well as fun,” Mr Thomas said.
“We already have multiple safety measures in place for consumers, and we are continuing to invest in making it even safer.”
Mr Thomas was also asked whether TikTok was being unfairly targeted in comparison to platforms like Facebook and Twitter, which have longer and rockier track records of facilitating foreign interference, as well as asked to offer an explanation about the accusations of censorship of anti-China content, but is yet to answer either.
Members of the armed forces in Australia and the US have been told not to use the app on any Defence-issued device.
In February, Roy Morgan research reported more than 1.6 million Australians were using the app, which was particularly popular among Gen Z and the even younger Gen Alpha.
There’s a possibility TikTok representatives could be called before an ongoing Senate Inquiry into Foreign Interference on social media.
That Committee has already received a number of submissions regarding the spread of disinformation on another China-based social media platform called WeChat.
WeChat is one of the few messaging apps not banned in China and as such is used by the Chinese diaspora around the world to communicate with family back home.
In submissions to the inquiry, Adam Ni and Yun Jiang of the Canberra based research organisation, the China Policy Centre, recommended prioritising China in strategy addressing foreign interference, “because it is among the fastest-growing sources of threats and challenges”.
The submission recommended analysing China’s online operations, as well as forming better relationships with Chinese-Australian communities, including educating them on digital media literacy, and on the importance of freedom of speech in our culture.
“Chinese-Australian communities should not be seen as predominantly a vector of China’s foreign interference operations. Rather, they are the targets,” the submission reads.
The Centre’s submission warned that while China’s activities on English-language social media didn’t “demonstrate the same kind of malign intentions and sophistication” as Russia’s, “this is changing fast”.
It cited the “persistent and well-resourced campaign against Taiwan” on social media as well as a campaign to “undermine the legitimacy of Hong Kong’s protest movement” as proof that “China poses a serious threat to open societies through information manipulation.”
Committee chair Senator Jenny McAllister said it would be in TikTok’s best interest to send someone along to the inquiry because “Australians will expect to hear from them”.
Victorian Senator Kimberley Kitching will also be on the Committee and told the Herald-Sun there was “credible evidence” that suggested user data was being sent back to Chinese servers, where it could potentially be used to track users.
“It would be entirely appropriate for senior representatives from that company to appear before the committee to answer questions on this,” Senator Kitching said.
RELATED: Backlash over ‘depraved’ TikTok in India
A TikTok spokesperson previously said “TikTok takes user data security seriously and has steadily worked to increase controls on access”.
“The concerns are the Chinese government: do they have access to the information that TikTok as a Chinese company hold on all its users, and there are more than a billion users around the world and more than a million in Australia,” tech commentator Trevor Long said on the Today show this morning.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was also targeted in the report over his use of the app.
A spokesperson wouldn’t say whether he had it installed on his phone but said he didn't have any concerns over it.
“We see TikTok as a way of making the work of government more accessible to all Victorians,” the spokesperson said.
“Telecommunications security is rightly a matter for the Federal Government and its agencies.”
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