TikTok Might Be Banned In Australia Over Data Privacy Concerns

TikTok is the must-have app this year however, we may not be able to enjoy the joys of short-video making for long.

Launched in 2018, TikTok is a social media app, owned by Beijing-based company Bytedance and now has more than 800 million active users and almost 1.6 million of them are Australians. Following the app banned in India and United State Secretary Mike Pompeo’s statement showing concern on the apps, data collection has put TikTok under global scrutiny.

It’s no secret that most democratic countries lack policies for data and privacy protection across all social media services is a growing concern. However, TikTok’s data breach seems to be a more pressing issue for most countries because according to China's 2017 National Intelligence Law, individuals and companies need to assist the government by providing access, cooperation or support for intelligence-gathering activities. In other words, if the Chinese government requested TikTok user data, the company would by law have to assist them and then would be legally barred from talking about it.

Since the Chinese government’s laws hold a thin veil between user data and Chinese authorities, hypothetically the government could access data on 800 million users, and could possibly manipulate or censor information and overall just control the narrative on any particular event, issue or campaign.

As a result, there are now plans to put TikTok through Foreign Interference via Social Media Senate Inquiry. This committee was set up early last year, and its main task is to inquire into and report the risk posed to Australia's democracy by foreign interference through social media.

In contrast to the Australian government’s concerns, lots of TikTok users have taken to twitter to request Prime Minister Scott Morrison to stop the app from being banned. The efforts have ranged from circulating a petition, to making reaction videos to a fake tweet from Scott Morrison that announced the ban of the app in Australia and captioned it “SCOMO NO!”