Government officials and researchers are calling for the review of other social media apps following calls to ban Chinese-owned TikTok from Australian government phones.
The Australian federal government has not yet issued a directive to officially ban the popular app, but nearly 140 federal government agencies have independently banned the app from their government phones.
In a report by The Guardian, Home Affairs minister Clare O’Neil is said to have requested the Department of Home Affairs to review the security risks of all social media platforms. The report is set to be summitted in this year’s first quarter.
Meanwhile, cybersecurity researcher Prof Vanessa Teague said there shouldn’t be a dichotomy between American and Chinese-owned apps in terms of security concerns.
“I don’t think it’s as simple as TikTok – bad; American companies – good. I think they’re all bad,” Teague said.
While Apple and Google now allow users to decide on which information they want to share, they still collect a lot of information for other purposes.
“It’s all well and good to turn off location permission, but if you then upload a photo or a video that has your GPS coordinates … then you told them where you are, so it’s better but it doesn’t completely solve the problem,” Teague said.
Meanwhile, a TikTok spokesperson said they don’t operate any differently than other apps, claiming that they collect less data than many other popular mobile apps.
The spokesperson added that they would “continue to be diligent in ensuring we meet, or exceed, the data security standards applied to companies that operate in Australia”.
Meanwhile, O’Neil has ruled out any plans to ban the app completely in Australia.
“TikTok is one of the most widely used apps in Australia, much beloved by Australia’s young people in particular. It’s not currently on the table,” she told the ABC in February.
Paulo Rizal is a content producer for Comms Room. He writes content around popular media, journalism, social media, and more.
