A legislative committee has suggested that the prohibition on TikTok from government devices in Australia be expanded to include WeChat as well as the devices of government contractors.
In a report released on Tuesday, the Senate panel looking into foreign meddling on social media stated that it had been "particularly concerned" about the "unique national security risks" posed by platforms like TikTok and WeChat, "whose parent companies ByteDance and Tencent respectively, are irrefutably headquartered in and run from authoritarian countries like China," according to The Guardian.
According to the committee, China's national intelligence law gives the Chinese government the authority to demand that these businesses work covertly with Chinese intelligence services.
The business stated there were safeguards in place to guarantee that authorization for the data passed through the US-based workers of the company. The committee had previously learned from TikTok that staff based in China could access Australian user data.
The committee, which was presided over by James Paterson, a senator from the Liberal Party and the shadow minister for cyber security, made the recommendation that, in the event that the US authorities required ByteDance to sell its shares in TikTok, the Australian government should take steps to ensure that TikTok Australia is similarly severed from its parent business.
AU to Ban WeChat?
The committee recommended that the government explore banning WeChat as well as expanding the TikTok ban on government devices to all contractors who have access to Australian government data.
Following the government-wide prohibition from late last year, the White House in the US published a new regulation in June prohibiting government contractors from installing TikTok on employee devices.
The AFR reported last month that a number of Australian consulting companies had similarly decided to prevent the app from being used on company devices.
Read also: TikTok Ban: 'High Risk' App Will Now Be Removed from Government Devices Over Security Threat
New Social Media Transparency Guidelines
The committee also suggested a set of transparency guidelines that social media platforms should follow, including having an Australian presence, labeling state-affiliated media, identifying content filtering or takedowns, and following government directives about content on their platforms.
The committee recommended that, as a last resort, the home affairs minister should impose travel bans on social media corporations if they don't comply with the minimum transparency standards.
While the government senators Jess Walsh and Raff Ciccone endorsed the transparency framework suggested, they noted a blunt national ban of specific apps would not be effective and would instead result in a game of "whack-a-mole" with new apps appearing to replace those banned in Australia.
Labor and the Greens did not offer any dissenting views in the report. They claimed that any future restrictions on government technology should be guided by security agency recommendations.
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