More than 40 federal MPs, including six ministers, have active accounts on TikTok a month after government-issued devices were banned from using the Chinese-owned video-sharing application.
The MPs and their staff are using TikTok on their personal phones and computers, meaning they are not contravening the ban.
Labor MP Julian Hill and senators Pauline Hanson and Lidia Thorpe are the three most followed federal politicians on TikTok.Credit: SMH/The Age
Fourteen of the MPs have posted on the platform since Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus issued the ban on April 4, which prohibits politicians and public servants from using TikTok on their work devices. Some had to delete the application from their government devices, while others were already using the platform on their personal phones and computers.
Dreyfus said he had made the decision based on advice from intelligence and security agencies, in response to growing privacy concerns about the app, which is owned by China-based company ByteDance.
This masthead has identified 45 federal MPs who continue to have TikTok accounts.
They include 22 Labor MPs, eight Liberal MPs, eight Greens MPs and six independents or MPs from minor parties.
Many MPs see the app as an important platform for reaching younger voters. TikTok was the most downloaded mobile entertainment app in Australia last year and it now has 7.38 million Australian users aged over 18, according to a report by communications agency We Are Social and social media management firm Hootsuite.
The most followed federal politician, Labor MP Julian Hill – who has 146,400 followers and has received 2.3 million likes for his videos – said he remained on TikTok because millions of Australians engaged with it and consumed information.
“It’s important that elected representatives meet the community wherever they are – whether that’s down the shops, at the railway station, at the footy, schools, senior clubs, the RSL or online,” Hill said.
“I’ve always been aware of the security concerns – hence have never had it on my government phone, as I take security seriously.”
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, who has more than 15,500 followers and received more than 112,600 likes for her posts, said she joined the platform after seeing her children and their friends gain information from it.
“I think it’s always important to embrace effective ways to talk with different audiences about the work our government is doing,” she said.
“As always, I am following the relevant security advice. I don’t have TikTok on any government device, and neither do my staff.”
Ministers and staff receive phones and computers from their departments but the Department of Parliamentary Services issues personal phones and computers to backbench MPs. The department said it was “working towards implementation of a restriction on all DPS-managed devices that have TikTok installed”.
Senator David Shoebridge, the Green’s digital rights spokesman who deleted the TikTok app from his department-issued device, said the government was ignoring the scale of the data-harvesting crisis.
“There are serious concerns about the harvesting and use of data by TikTok but banning one app from government devices and thinking it will come close to fixing the problem is dangerous naivete,” he said.
“We’re in a data security and privacy crisis but the government is refusing to confront the scale of the problem, instead fixating on one platform when in fact our data is being exploited by every corporate that can get their hands on it: social platforms, health apps, the games our kids play.”
Some MPs, including independent Kylea Tink, are now using social media agencies to manage their accounts. Others including independent Bob Katter rely on their staff to operate their accounts on personal devices.
National security experts have raised concerns the app could be used by the Chinese government for surveillance or influence operations because its parent company, ByteDance, is headquartered in China. TikTok has consistently denied that, saying it has robust security measures.
TikTok exceptions can be granted to government staff on a case-by-case basis under the ban, but they need a dedicated phone for the app and must register their account to a generic federal email address.
A spokesperson for the Attorney-General’s Department said the ban related to all government devices, including those issued to MPs.
“The direction does not place restrictions on what individuals can have on their own personal devices,” the spokesperson said.
TikTok Australia general manager of operations Lee Hunter said that Dreyfus’s direction did not suggest anyone should deactivate their TikTok account.
“We’re pleased to see that there are so many MPs that have clearly understood the attorney-general’s direction and continue to use their account,” he said.
The opposition’s home affairs spokesman James Paterson said every member of parliament should comply with the government’s direction but “this does not eliminate all risks posed by TikTok, it just mitigates them”.
“A broader solution is clearly necessary for the millions of Australians who use the app and can’t all buy a second phone to do so,” he said.
Nine, which owns this masthead, is weighing up its position on TikTok but is not considering banning its journalists from the platform.
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