Australian media to remain on TikTok despite government fears

Australia’s media companies will stay on controversial social media app TikTok to attract the younger audiences they need, despite federal and state governments holding such significant security fears about the app that they banned employees from using it at work.

Some of the country’s most well-known publications and broadcasters have spent the past two years cultivating millions of young followers who engage with news stories through videos on the Chinese-owned app.

Social media app TikTok is causing concern in many Western democracies because of its Chinese ownership.Credit: Michaela Pollock

Paul Whittaker, chief executive of News Corp’s cable TV broadcaster Sky News, last week announced plans to stop using TikTok amid national security fears, but other media organisations say they have no immediate intentions to restrict professional use of the application or use of the service on company devices. TikTok Australia’s general manager of operations, Lee Hunter, is urging media companies not to be influenced by “far-fetched hypotheticals”.

Nine Entertainment, which owns broadcasting, streaming and publishing assets including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, said there was currently no policy to limit TikTok’s use. These mastheads run professional accounts on the platform, such as @thesydneymorningherald, which has 96,200 followers and 5.5 million likes and @theageaustralia, with 63,200 followers and 2.4 million likes. An account for Nine’s popular television show Married at First Sight (@mafs) has 242,700 followers and 3.6 million likes.

“At Nine, we respect the various independent requirements of our business across all platforms in relation to the use of TikTok,” a Nine spokesperson said. “We are committed to supporting the safety and wellbeing of our people which means we work with individuals to advise them on the most appropriate approach to using all social media platforms, including TikTok.”

A Guardian Australia spokesperson implied it was too soon to decide on how to approach the app. “We are not proposing any major changes to the way we use TikTok as an organisation at this time, and we are continuing to monitor the situation,” the spokesperson said.

A News Corp spokesperson, who also represents The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun, referred all inquiries to individual mastheads. John Lehmann, managing director of The Australian, The Daily Telegraph and prestige titles including fashion title Vogue Australia, declined to comment.

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced the ban of TikTok earlier this month following advice from intelligence and security agencies which raised concerns about security risks on the app and its links to China.

The app has come under fire over concerns it 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. Its Australian app stores its data in the United States and Singapore, not China.

The government has only provided a high-level explanation for why it banned the devices from government phones. But potential perils for the media were made clear last December when an internal investigation by ByteDance found that employees tracked multiple journalists covering the company, and improperly gained access to their IP addresses and data to work out whether they had been in the same places as employees.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced his government will ban TikTok from government devices.Credit: Chris Hopkins

The challenge for media companies and their approach to TikTok is twofold. First, TikTok is one of the few ways to engage with young Australians, who prefer to scroll on their phones or stream television shows online. Second, deciding how to approach the use of the service moving forward is also complex because of a lack of understanding about the security risks.

Sky News is currently the only high-profile media company to pull itself from the platform so far. Whittaker, Sky’s chief executive, confirmed to The Australian last week the broadcaster – which had amassed 65,000 followers and millions of views in the six months it operated an account – had stopped using the platform due to security concerns.

“Sky News Australia launched on TikTok late last year and quickly amassed a large following,” Whittaker said. “However, following recent developments, specifically last week’s advice from intelligence and security agencies to the attorney-general regarding the intense security risk associated with having TikTok on mobile devices, we have made the decision to cease publishing to the platform as a matter of precaution and principle.”

Network 10 and Channel Seven continue to use the platform to promote their television shows but also declined to publicly address questions about security concerns and their approach to the app.

Zara Seidler, co-founder of social media-led youth news site The Daily Aus, which has 52,600 followers and 3.5 million likes on TikTok, said it was important to remain on the platform.

“It’ll be interesting to read the reviews and advice that Mark Dreyfus, the Attorney-General, received,” Seidler said in a podcast last week. “That said, for us as a business who tries to meet young people where they are at, TikTok is undeniably where Australians are.

“There is a lot of misinformation on that app and so I think that if we can fill that vacuum with factual information-based reporting then that is a good thing to be doing. But these things change on a daily basis.”

TikTok said Sky News Australia’s decision was guided by “fundamental misconceptions” about the platform.

“We would urge media organisations to be guided by the facts and not influenced by those pitching far-fetched hypotheticals to drag TikTok into geopolitics it has nothing to do with,” Hunter said.

Dreyfus’ ban only applies to non-corporate government entities, meaning a range of government-owned businesses and agencies are not subject to it. The ABC, which is not subject to the ban, is monitoring the situation and is in conversations about the potential threat with the Australian Cyber Security Centre.

In contrast to media organisations, government employees have little need to be on TikTok on work devices and there are exceptions that can be granted should they need to use the platform. The government has ruled out banning the app — which has an estimated 7 million monthly Australian users — for the general public. However, it is considering options to force TikTok to store all Australian data locally, so it cannot be accessed by employees in China.

Australia’s move to ban the app from government phones follows similar measures from the United States, United Kingdom and European Commission.

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