April 4, 2023
The Albanese government’s decision to finally ban TikTok from all Commonwealth-issued devices is welcome.
In doing so we are following our closest allies and friends including the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, the European Union and many others, who have already acted to protect their government users from the national security risks posed by the app.
I have been calling on the government to address this serious issue since 12 July 2022, when TikTok admitted in correspondence to me that Australian user data was accessible in mainland China.
I shared that correspondence with the Minister for Home Affairs and Cyber Security on 13 July, and on 21 October I wrote directly to the Prime Minister to bring it to his attention.
On 22 December TikTok admitted to using the app to spy on journalists, despite previously denying it was even technically possible.
On 6 March 2023 an audit I conducted of federal government departments and agencies revealed a haphazard and inconsistent approach to banning the app, with many agencies and departments permitting it.
Only now is the Albanese government belatedly acting. It should not have taken this long.
If the government acted when I first called for them to do so, Australia would have led the world tackling this cyber security threat, as we did when in August 2018 we banned Huawei from our 5G network. Instead, we are the last Five Eyes member to act.
Now that this risk is being addressed, we must urgently turn our attention to the broader cyber security and foreign interference threat posed by TikTok to the millions of other Australian users. We cannot allow the Chinese Communist Party to retain unregulated access to their data, or a powerful vector to covertly influence our democracy.
State and territory governments should now follow and also ban TikTok from their government-issued devices.
The Opposition stands ready to work in a bipartisan way with the government to tackle this problem, including through the Senate Select Committee on Foreign Interference Through Social Media, which will commence public hearings next month.
