March 22, 2023
A senior ByteDance executive has resigned from the Australian board of TikTok, amid the viral video platform’s efforts to distance itself from its Chinese parent company and as Canberra weighs a ban of the app on government-issued devices over security concerns.
Documents lodged with the corporate regulator show Zhao Liu resigned from the board of the local subsidiary of the social media giant last week.
The Chinese-born Mr Liu, who is a Canadian national, is ByteDance’s head of corporate development and investor relations, and a director of the Singaporean subsidiary. From his Singapore base he oversees all ByteDance’s fundraising and partnerships, including investment and M&A activities, according to a page on the website of Hong Kong-based fund manager L2 Capital Management.
Mr Liu joined the board of TikTok Australia when it was incorporated in 2019.
His departure comes as the Albanese government considers recommendations from the Department of Home Affairs’ review into security risks posed by social media use. It is expected to ban TikTok across all government devices, The Sydney Morning Herald reported last week.
A broader response on dealing with national security risks across social media is also expected.
“The government has received the review and is considering its recommendations,” a spokesman for Home Affairs and Cybersecurity Minister Clare O’Neil said.
“We are working to undo the years of inaction under the previous government, who failed to act or even provide advice about these issues as they developed.”
TikTok is under scrutiny in many jurisdictions over concerns that the Chinese Communist Party could have access to data generated by the app’s 1 billion worldwide users and will use it to compromise nations’ security.
The Biden administration last week told TikTok it would ban the app unless its foreign shareholders sold the company. A ban on TikTok for Australian government-issued phones would follow similar moves in New Zealand, the US, and European Commission.
TikTok has repeatedly denied any connections to the CCP.
Another ByteDance executive, Tian Zhao, remains on the TikTok Australia board. Ms Zhao is also listed as a director of a UK-based TikTok entity and a US ByteDance subsidiary, according to regulatory filings. Ms Zhao is also Chinese-born but a Canadian national.
The Financial Review is not suggesting any wrongdoing by Mr Liu or Ms Zhao or that they are linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), only that they hold roles at ByteDance, which TikTok is working to distance itself from.
A TikTok spokeswoman confirmed TikTok Australia was set up in 2019 “and predates TikTok Australia executives joining the company. Brett Armstrong, TikTok Australia’s head of global business solutions, is now a director of our TikTok Australia entity.”
Mr Armstrong joined the TikTok Australia board in May 2021.
TikTok Australia is owned by TikTok Ltd, which is registered in the Cayman Islands. TikTok Ltd is owned by ByteDance, the Beijing-based entity that is domiciled in the Cayman Islands.
In July 2022, the Financial Review revealed a letter in which TikTok admitted to Liberal Senator James Paterson that its employees around the world, including in China, can access certain data of millions of Australian users. At the time, TikTok maintained it had “strict protocols in place to protect Australian user data”.
A submission to a Senate committee looking at foreign interference through social media by Rachel Lee, Prudence Luttrell, Matthew Johnson and John Garnaut details links between TikTok and its parent company ByteDance.
The researchers said China-based ByteDance employees regularly work for TikTok or are recruited into the subsidiary.
“In November 2022, for example, TikTok posted a job ad for a ‘data scientist’ based in Shanghai. A week later, an ad with the same description posted by ByteDance for a “data scientist – international short videos – Shanghai” showed that the hiring team belonged to ‘talent acquisition @ TikTok’.”
The researchers found similar examples across commercialisation, research and development, and algorithm engineers.
“Both TikTok and ByteDance regularly cross-post job advertisements with the same position IDs.”
The report accused TikTok of so-called “Singapore-washing” as a means of deflecting intense scrutiny of companies from China.
The report also found ByteDance has strong links with the CCP.
One example, the report states, is Zhang Fuping, ByteDance’s Communist Party committee secretary and its editor-in-chief.
The researchers also found overlapping leadership between TikTok and Douyin, the Chinese version of the app, also owned by ByteDance.
In December, an investigation by Financial Review revealed how local branches of the party, government agencies and other arms of the Chinese security apparatus use apps such as Douyin and other media to spread propaganda about Xinjiang to its own citizens.
