In the global discussion around data privacy and security, much attention has been rightfully placed on the Chinese-owned platform TikTok, with concerns that the user data it collects is accessible to Chinese authorities. But the …
Articles by: "Fergus Ryan"
Despite numerous scandals and calls for it to be banned, TikTok, the Chinese-owned app, continues to enjoy immense popularity in Australia. ByteDance, the Beijing-based company that owns and controls TikTok, is currently under investigation by …
In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic swept across the globe, China faced international scrutiny over its draconian control measures and the nature and origin of the pandemic. The Chinese Communist Party saw an urgent need …
In a welcome development last year, TikTok announced that it would start publishing insights about the covert influence operations it identifies and removes from its platform globally in its quarterly community guidelines enforcement reports. Since …
Hardly a day had passed after the government unveiled its initial draft of the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill 2023 when critics descended upon it. ‘Hey Peasants, Your Opinions Hell, your facts Are Fake News’, …
A senior analyst with ASPI’s International Cyber Policy Centre, Fergus Ryan took part in today’s hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media. This is his contribution to ASPI’s submission to …
The Chinese party-state is obscuring human rights abuses and oppression in border provinces such as Xinjiang through an increasingly sophisticated propaganda and disinformation campaign. Our research—published today in a new ASPI report, Frontier influencers: the …
In September 2020, at the conclusion of a UK parliamentary committee hearing during which TikTok executives were grilled, in public, for the first time, committee member Kevin Brennan offered his colleagues a frank assessment of …
In November 2021, almost one year after he had posted a computer-generated image on Twitter of a grinning Australian soldier appearing to slit the throat of an Afghan child, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian …
The loss of control of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s account on the Chinese social media app WeChat should not have come as a surprise to the government. As I warned in multiple media appearances in …
Originally published 12 March 2021. There’s one thing we’re all getting wrong about TikTok: it’s not really a social media app. As TikTok Australia’s general manager told the Senate Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media in September …
Our new ASPI report, Borrowing mouths to speak on Xinjiang, explores how the Chinese Communist Party uses foreign social media influencers to shape and push messages domestically and internationally about Xinjiang that are aligned with …