Following India’s ban on 59 Chinese apps, including highly popular TikTok application, many parliamentarians in Australia are proposing a ban on TikTok, citing concerns that the Chinese government might be using this app to collect data from users.
Recently, Senator Jim Molan of the Liberal Party stated that the Chinese government was misusing TikTok. Another MP has revealed plans to put TikTok before the Foreign Interference through Social Media senate inquiry over fears that the app developers are sharing user data with the Chinese government.
He also says this is an effort by the Chinese Communist Party to collect data of users in other countries. “It might be dressed differently but it’s the same beast.”
TikTok is owned by Chinese tech company Bytedance and has repeatedly been criticized by politicians in the US and India of being a national security threat, alleging that the app sends data back to the Chinese government.
TikTok, on its part, said that its servers for the app are based outside China and not governed by Chinese law for any data sharing.
In January, the company said, “You should understand that no data storage system or transmission of data over the Internet or any other public network can guarantee hundred percent security.”
Bytedance further explained that even if TikTok users decide to delete the content from their device or some countries’ governments ban the app, the data cannot be deleted from the previous date. “The reason for this is that once the information is transferred, it cannot be recovered without the help of the company.”
The social media platform is saying that they will exit Hong Kong within the next few days. The company says they are pausing review of requests made by the Hong Kong government for user data as a reaction to the new national security laws that China has imposed in Hong Kong.