Coalition demands Anthony Albanese follows US in crackdown on TikTok – warning Chinese app poses ‘very serious threat’ to Australians

There are growing calls for Australia to address the “very serious threat” that Chinese social media giant TikTok poses to Australians.

The short video app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is one of the fastest growing platforms in the world with more than 170 million users in the US and 8.5 million in Australia.

The US House of Representatives passed a bill on Wednesday that would give ByteDance six months to divest the app and sell it to a company outside China.

Australian Opposition Home Affairs spokesman James Paterson said on Sunday that TikTok will remain unsafe unless its relationship with Beijing is “severed”.

His comments came after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday the Australian government was not expected to follow the US.

“Now that Congress and the US are banning TikTok, do you think we’ll do the same here in Australia?” asked WSFM radio host Brendan Jones.

“We will seek advice, but we have no plans,” Mr Albanese replied.

“You must always put national security interests first, but you must also recognize that this is a way for many people to communicate.”

But Patterson called on the government to “take action”, saying the app posed a risk to Australian democracy and national security.

Speaking on Sunday, he said the coalition does not yet support a full ban on the platform, but that the administration should support growing efforts in the US to spin off TikTok’s US operations from its Beijing-based parent company.

“If the United States successfully removes TikTok from ByteDance, Australia should look to do the same,” the Victorian senator told the ABC’s Insiders program.

“The ending I hope for is that Australians can continue to use TikTok, but without the risk of their data being misused and without the risk that the Chinese Communist Party can override the algorithm to pump disinformation into our democracy.

‘I’m sure intelligence agencies aren’t saying to the Prime Minister, ‘There’s nothing to worry about with TikTok – there’s no worry at all.’

“We know that’s not the case.”

The platform, whose users are mainly teenagers and young adults, is among Australia’s most downloaded apps.

But many politicians and security analysts in Australia and abroad have become increasingly wary of it, concerned that the Chinese government could force ByteDance to hand over user data, or use it for propaganda and to sow division.

TikTok said it will not transfer data to China and that it is trying to remove misinformation from its platform.

The US legislation to tackle TikTok has received significant support among US politicians and was overwhelmingly passed by the lower house of Congress.

TikTok has urged US users to contact their local politicians to show their disapproval via an in-app notification.

If the bill also passes the U.S. Senate, President Joe Biden has indicated he will sign the legislation into law, creating a legal challenge to the legislation on the grounds that it infringes on the First Nations’ right to freedom of expression Amendment.

Chinese government officials have also expressed opposition to US pressure to force the sale of TikTok, telling ByteDance they would prefer to see a ban enforced.

An outcome in which ByteDance refuses to divest the $160 billion app, forcing the ban and reducing its value, would be “revealing,” Senator Paterson said.

“That would be a very irrational choice, but it will be quite an illustrative choice, because I suspect that ByteDance would operate as an extension of the Chinese government, and not as a commercial entity.”

The senator also called on the government to introduce new transparency requirements on TikTok and other platforms such as Chinese social media site WeChat, as recommended by a Senate committee investigating the risk of foreign interference through social media.

TikTok is one of the fastest growing platforms in the world with more than 170 million users in the US and 8.5 million Australian users. Stock image

“They need to be transparent about the relationship they have with foreign governments and the directions they receive from foreign governments to interfere with the content on a platform,” he said.

“These recommendations are there for the government to implement at any time… I really hope they do.”

But asked whether the issue should be raised when Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visits Canberra next week, Senator Paterson said it was “not a high priority issue”.

“The Foreign Minister (Penny Wong) and the Prime Minister have a long list of issues to raise with (Mr Wang), especially the death sentence facing Australian citizen Yang Hengjun.”