TikTok could soon be banned in the US as data collection concerns grow, but has ‘no plans’ to follow its ally’s footsteps.
The short-form 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 n users.
But on Wednesday the US House of Representatives passed a bill that would give ByteDance six months to divest from the app and sell to a company that is not based in China.
Failing to do this, Apple’s App Store and Google Play store would be barred from hosting TikTok, effectively banning its use across the US.
But Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday the n government was not expected to emulate the US.
‘With Congress and the US putting a ban on TikTok, are we going to do the same here in , do you think,’ WSFM host Brendan Jones asked.
‘We’ll take advice but we have no plans,’ he told WSFM Sydney.
‘You’ve always got to have national security concerns front and centre but you also need to acknowledge that for a whole lot of people, this provides a way of them communicating.’
could be on track to ban TikTok after the United States threatened to implement a nationwide embargo on the popular app (stock)
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday shrugged speculation that would follow in the footsteps of the US in banning TikTok
Opposition leader Peter Dutton on Thursday called on Mr Albanese to ‘show some leadership’ over TikTok concerns.
‘I think the prime minister needs to show leadership here, at a time when we’re being advised that young people who are using TikTok are having their personal details collected, their images and their most intimate discussions,’ he said.
‘When that’s being collected by a country or a third party, the prime minister has to act, and so far he hasn’t done that.’
Meanwhile, shadow home affairs spokesman James Paterson urged the government to implement similar reforms or else put at risk.
‘What this legislation does is it… breaks the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and what has become the most dominant source of news and information in the world for young people,’ he told Sky News on Thursday.
He claims the Chinese government are given ‘unregulated access’ to n devices and uses that to abuse citizens’ data and influence their world views.
‘That’s not a national security threat we should tolerate at any time, but particularly at a time of heightened strategic competition,’ Senator Paterson said.
The House of Representatives passed a bill that would give ByteDance six months to sell the app to a company that is not based in China (pictured, TikTok fans protest in the US)
Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil said she would be following the outcome of the bill which still needs to pass in the Senate.
‘We are monitoring the progress of the bill in the US and will take additional action if and when relevant agencies advise it is appropriate to do so,’ a spokesman for the minister said on Wednesday.
‘The Albanese government has taken strong action in line with advice from our agencies to restrict access to TikTok on devices used to handle sensitive information.’
In , TikTok is only banned on government devices, which prevents public servants from downloading the app on their work-issued phones.
US politicians claim the app poses a security risk as Americans’ data could be shared with the Chinese government due to ByteDance’s affiliations with the country.
But TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew has repeatedly told Congress US data is held in Singapore, not China.
TikTok’s fate now rests in the hands of US senators, who will review the legislation.
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