This was published 1 year ago
Opinion
Should TikTok be banned in Australia?
Uri Gal
Professor of business information systemsA few weeks ago, it was leaked that the popular social media app TikTok had been sharing US user data with ByteDance, its Chinese parent company. These revelations led to calls from the American Federal Communications Commission to have TikTok removed from Google and Apple’s app stores.
Should the government and individual users in Australia take heed and reconsider whether TikTok be used here? It’s a question that demands serious consideration.
The social media giant joins Apple and Amazon in exploring ways to digitise and disrupt the traditional health care industry.Credit: AP
A recent report exposed just how much data TikTok collects and showed that the app has the capability to trace users’ keyboard inputs, including passwords and credit cards. When users click on links within the app, they are taken to an in-app browser controlled by TikTok, rather than to a browser of their choice. In TikTok’s browser, every user interaction is monitored in minute detail.
The scope of data surveillance by TikTok may be even more expansive than other popular social media apps because, unlike other apps, TikTok does not give users the option to open links in their default browser and thus keeps them locked into its digital ecosystems and under its constant gaze.
The extensive and detailed data collected in this way is fed to TikTok’s algorithms that generate highly personalised content designed to grab users’ attention and keep them within the app for as long as possible. This model is not unique to TikTok. However, TikTok’s tactics are particularly concerning because of its uniquely young user base.
In Australia, around 72 per cent of the app’s users are under the age of 25 and around 30 per cent are under the age of 15. We are all susceptible to the mind-shifting effects of social media due to the prevalence of echo chambers and systematic bias in the information we are shown. However, young people – especially adolescents – are particularly vulnerable to social media induced psychological stresses, which can result in anxiety, depression and self-harm.
It is quite likely that our future prime minister and cabinet members are being surveilled.
Another point to consider is TikTok’s ties with China. There have been multiple indications of the links between TikTok, its parent company ByteDance and the Chinese government. A recent report found that 300 employees at TikTok and ByteDance were previously employed by Chinese state media publications, and some still are.
An additional sign of the Chinese government’s influence over the two companies is that it took a stake and a board seat in a key ByteDance entity last year. This move calls into question the independence of ByteDance and TikTok and raises concerns that they may be used to propagate pro-China messaging in the West.
These concerns are particularly pertinent in light of recent revelations that the Chinese government engaged in similar tactics in the past, and that ByteDance increased its US lobbying spending – to protect the competitiveness of Chinese companies against American counterparts, for instance.
These issues should be considered against the backdrop of China’s mass surveillance efforts in Australia and beyond. The American FBI states on its website that “the counterintelligence and economic espionage efforts emanating from the government of China … are a grave threat to the economic wellbeing and democratic values of the United States.” A couple of years ago it emerged that a Chinese company with links to Beijing’s military and intelligence networks had been secretly data-profiling 2.4 million people, including at least 35,000 prominent Australians.
Given the strained relationship between China and Australia, data surveillance enabled by TikTok is particularly risky. It could be used to scoop up sensitive information about Australian citizens and leveraged for military or industrial espionage. TikTok may also be used to covertly shape Australian public opinion in favour of China – we know the Chinese government has engaged in similar tactics during the pandemic.
TikTok’s data can also be used to compile detailed user profiles of Australians at scale. Given its large and young Australian user base, it is quite likely that our country’s future prime minister and cabinet members are being surveilled and profiled by China. Surely, if nothing else, this should give us reason to pause and think whether the app should be used in Australia.
Uri Gal is a Professor of Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney. His research focuses on the organisational and ethical aspects of digital technologies.
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