March 17, 2024
TikTok is a "bad faith actor" and should be banned in Australia if it does not distance itself from Chinese ownership, the Coalition's cybersecurity spokesperson says.
The US House of Representatives last week passed a bill which would force ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, to sell the popular social app or else face a nationwide ban.
Senator James Paterson said the Coalition was "seeking advice" on legislative options to do the same in Australia.
The Australian government last year banned the use of TikTok on government devices, but Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the government had no current plans for a nationwide ban.
Ms Rowland stopped short of ruling out such a ban in the future, saying the government would follow the advice of its own security agencies.
"We have been observing what has been going on in other countries and most recently in the United States," she said. "We will make decisions as a sovereign nation."
But Senator Paterson said he believed intelligence agencies were concerned the Chinese government was gathering intelligence from user data, and was using the platform to spread propaganda and disinformation.
"It would be rare for intelligence agencies to recommend a policy solution … [But] I know for a fact intelligence agencies are not saying to the prime minister [that] there is nothing to worry about with TikTok."
Senator Paterson said data on the more than 8 million Australians who use TikTok could be used to "build a very sophisticated picture of our society".
And he suggested it was "curious" that TikTok had "never once found in its own view" instances of Chinese government interference when rival social media platform Meta frequently identified and blocked such attempts on its own platform.
"On [human rights concerns in] Xinjiang there is far more Chinese government propaganda on the platform than on any other platform," he said.
Senator Paterson advocated a similar approach to the US in which Australia would threaten to ban the platform only if ByteDance refused to sell.
He said he hoped the company would sell and that Australian users could continue to use TikTok under alternative ownership.
"Some independent assessments have said that TikTok is worth up to $160 billion," he said.
"If the choice is to accept a payday of $160 billion or stand by and allow your app to be banned and lose that value, then that would be quite an irrational choice. But it would be quite an illustrative choice."
Ms Rowland said the government was working to address privacy concerns in other ways, pointing to an inquiry by the privacy commissioner into TikTok's data practices and a review by the attorney-general of legal privacy protections.
"[TikTok] is always subject to Australian law, that includes the use of personal information and privacy rules," she said.
But Ms Rowland did not offer a time line on the government's bill to crack down on online misinformation and disinformation, which has been awaiting an update for several months after a consultation draft attracted wide criticism.
"We have been consulting on a draft of that bill [and] we will have more to say."
