December 20, 2022
SOCIAL media giants like TikTok and WeChat will be hauled up for questioning over data privacy and foreign interference as part of an inquiry considering how to protect Australian users from harm.
Coalition cyber security spokesman James Paterson, who has been appointed chairman of the newly reformed Senate Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media, has confirmed he plans to provide advice to the federal government next year on how to limit Australians’ exposure to the “weaponisation” of social media.
“I’m really open minded about solutions and I’m interested in what comes in by way of submissions to the committee,” he said.
The US Senate this month voted to ban TikTok on all government devices, but Mr Paterson said while it should be an option on the table, it was a “very blunt instrument”.
He said his preference was to find other regulatory options to manage risks posed by the app, whose parent company ByteDance is based in China.
“The main core of the problem is that (ByteDance) is subjected to China’s intelligence and security laws,” he said.
TikTok Australia’s director of public policy Brent Thomas has previously advised that the company had never been asked for Australian data, nor would it provide it to China.
“There are strict protocols in place to protect Australian user data,” he said in a letter to Mr Paterson. But in August leaked audio of company meetings confirmed ByteDance repeatedly accessed non-public data about US TikTok users.
