Calls for 1980s Grim Reaper-style ads to warn of the dangers of China-owned TikTok

Foreign-owned social media apps using private data - including TikTok - could prompt new public TV campaigns akin to the 80s Grim Reaper ads.

Australians could soon see “in-your-face” TV ads akin to the 1980s AIDS campaign, this time warning the public about the harms of social media apps such as China-owned TikTok and ByteDance.

Home Affairs, ASIO and the Australian Signals Directorate have provided the federal government with a confidential review as the basis for a strategy to combat risks of personal data theft and fraud by foreign-owned app entities.

They have noted the “lack of transparency” about the data the apps collect and pass on to other entities, as well as the potential for misuse.

Video still from 1987 The Grim Reaper advertising campaign, which helped tackle AIDS by using very confronting imagery. Source: YouTube

The advertisements used a Grim reaper bowling people over with a bowling ball, the shock ads sparking a national debate and awareness. Source: YouTube

Critically it notes there is a limit to how much government and agencies can do and responsibility rests with Australians to be aware and protect themselves against cyber fraud by both foreign state actors and criminals.

Home Affairs has been given specific funding for a public awareness campaign on the risks attached to social media apps, specifically those foreign owned, like the video-sharing app TikTok (China) and the photo filter FaceApp (Russia).

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has indicated the government is unlikely to ban TikTok but said consumers should understand where their data is going.

Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells in action in the Senate. Picture: Gary Ramage

Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and trade committee member Liberal Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells, citing TikTok and ByteDance, told parliament it was time for the sinister nature of some social media apps be made more broadly known, in an “in-your-face” commercial television campaign like the Grim Reaper AIDS TV and print advertisements, which scared a generation into action.

The senator has led warnings about Chinese Government influence since 2016, when as Minister for International Development and the Pacific, she first flagged China’s push into the region and “debt trap diplomacy” ensnaring Pacific nations.

TikTok announced a deal to give users access to Sony Music Entertainment's massive archive of hit tunes. Picture: AFP

“I think the apps are a real worry and I don’t think people quite understand these organisations. This is not a cutesy kind of platform. There are sinister intents apart from some of the content on there; this is the way the Communist regime monitors conversations,” she told News Corp Australia yesterday.

That content has included a filmed suicide and other shocking embedded footage maliciously uploaded.

TikTok executives in Australia have denied user data is passed onto the Chinese Government.

Director-General of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) Rachel Noble at the ANU in Canberra. Picture: Sean Davey

ASD director general Rachel Noble confirmed to parliament in evidence the agency had provided some broad public advice but Home Affairs was “thinking deeply about the most important and urgent messages to get out to Australians to protect themselves”.

“It’s important to remember that all social media apps’ business model is to monetise your personal information that you provide them but also to on-sell the nature of your activity and engagement — what are you looking at? What do you look at most? Who are you pushing your information to? Who responds to that? That is a big money-making business model. Our advice really encourages people to consider that and proceed with great caution.”

A social media inquiry currently underway is looking at the online spread of misinformation by foreign actors.

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Originally published as Calls for 1980s Grim Reaper-style ads to warn of the dangers of China-owned TikTok