{"id":73816,"date":"2022-07-14T06:00:27","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T20:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=73816"},"modified":"2022-07-14T05:08:20","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T19:08:20","slug":"its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s time TikTok Australia came clean"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

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 how he thought the questioning went.<\/p>\n

\u2018At the end of the session I got the distinct feeling that the committee, talented as we all are, had failed to land a single blow on the witness,\u2019 he admitted<\/a>. Brennan, the MP for Cardiff West, clearly couldn\u2019t get rid of a niggling suspicion that he and his colleagues had missed something fundamental.<\/p>\n

Brennan\u2019s intuition was right\u2014something very fundamental had been missed, but not for want of trying. His colleague Damian Green asked TikTok executive Theo Bertram<\/a>, a former adviser to UK prime ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, more than once, in a manner of words, if TikTok user data was being sent back to China, but Bertram, the experienced political operator, had equivocated.<\/p>\n

\u2018I have explained several times that we have systems in place to protect our users\u2019 data from access from overseas, in China specifically,\u2019 Bertram told the committee before answering a question that had not actually been asked of him: \u2018No employee in China can access TikTok data in the way that you are suggesting on behalf of the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] to carry out mass surveillance. That is not possible.\u2019<\/p>\n

Two days later, at an Australian parliamentary committee hearing<\/a>, TikTok executives were at pains to minimise the extent to which TikTok was in any way connected to China, let alone reveal whether its users\u2019 data was being accessed from there. Their talking points\u2014that TikTok user data was stored in Singapore and the United States and that the company would never hand over the data to the Chinese government even if it were asked\u2014were beside the point.<\/p>\n

The location in which any data is stored<\/em> is immaterial if it can be readily accessed <\/em>from China. Moreover, TikTok\u2019s parent company, ByteDance, couldn\u2019t realistically refuse a request from the Chinese government for TikTok user data because a suite of national security laws<\/a> effectively compels individuals and companies to participate in Chinese \u2018intelligence work\u2019. If the authorities requested TikTok user data, the company would be required by law to assist the government and then would be legally prevented from speaking publicly about the matter.<\/p>\n

In the two years since these parliamentary inquiries, TikTok executives have continued to duck and weave, including in an appearance before the US Congress. In October last year, TikTok vice president and former Republican congressional aide Michael Beckerman parried back and forth for seven minutes with Republican Senator Ted Cruz, desperately trying to avoid answering a simple question about whether TikTok user data, based on the platform\u2019s privacy policy, can go back to an affiliate based in the People\u2019s Republic of China.<\/p>\n

\u2018You have dodged the questions more than any witness I have seen in my nine years serving in the Senate,\u2019 Cruz said<\/a> to Beckerman. \u2018In my experience, when a witness does that, it is because they are hiding something.\u2019\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

The politicos-turned-TikTok-executives have been savvy enough to avoid a made-for-TV moment when they admit that their users\u2019 data is being accessed from China. But, as I and my ASPI colleagues made clear in our 2020 report<\/a> on the app, they have never completely denied that that\u2019s the case.<\/p>\n

Specifically, a 2020 blog post<\/a> from TikTok Chief Security Officer Roland Cloutier stated that it was TikTok\u2019s goal<\/em> for China-based employees to have minimal<\/em> access to user data. In other words, not only was TikTok user data being accessed in China, but it wasn\u2019t even the company\u2019s intention at the time to completely cut off that access.<\/p>\n

In an under-reported September 2020 sworn affidavit<\/a>, Cloutier was even more explicit. \u2018TikTok relies on China-based ByteDance personnel for certain engineering functions that require them to access encrypted TikTok user data,\u2019 he admitted. \u2018According to our Data Access Approval Process, these China-based employees may access these encrypted data elements in decrypted form based on demonstrated need and only if they receive permission from our US-based team.\u2019<\/p>\n

Last month, a bombshell report<\/a> from BuzzFeed, based on leaked audio from more than 80 internal TikTok meetings, blew away any pretence that user data was being properly protected by TikTok\u2019s \u2018world-renowned, US-based security team\u2019. Instead, as one member of TikTok\u2019s trust and safety department put it in a September 2021 meeting, \u2018Everything is seen in China\u2019. In another meeting that month, a director referred to one Beijing-based engineer as a \u2018master admin\u2019 who \u2018has access to everything\u2019.<\/p>\n

When asked about the report by a group of nine Republican senators, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew finally acknowledged<\/a> that China-based employees \u2018can have access to TikTok US user data\u2019 and outlined a plan dubbed \u2018Project Texas\u2019 that the company had hastily announced in an effort to counteract BuzzFeed\u2019s expos\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Despite this newfound transparency, this week, Brent Thomas, a former Labor candidate for the seat of Hughes and now TikTok Australia\u2019s director of public policy, continued the kabuki theatre. In his own 900-word response<\/a> to a letter from Shadow Cybersecurity Minister James Paterson in which he and TikTok Australia CEO Lee Hunter were asked if Australian TikTok users\u2019 data was also accessible in China, Thomas vacillated.<\/p>\n

In answering Paterson\u2019s straightforward question, Thomas gave a convoluted answer that drew heavily on previous, vaguely worded statements made by Cloutier, but curiously failed to cite his 2020 affidavit that plainly states that TikTok user data is being accessed by the company\u2019s China-based employees. Only an extremely close reading of the letter reveals that TikTok did not deny what has now become painfully obvious.<\/p>\n

At some stage\u2014and hopefully soon\u2014politicians will bring in legislation to properly protect Australians\u2019 privacy and data from all of the big tech companies, whether they\u2019re from the US or China. In the meantime, TikTok Australia needs to be straight with its users so they can make up their own minds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":714,"featured_media":73823,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1383,52,224,2545],"class_list":["post-73816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-ccp","tag-china","tag-social-media","tag-tiktok"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIt\u2019s time TikTok Australia came clean | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It\u2019s time TikTok Australia came clean | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-13T20:00:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-07-13T19:08:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1238371359.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fergus Ryan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fergus Ryan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1238371359.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1238371359.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"A photograph taken on February 9, 2022 shows the logo of video-focused social networking service TikTok, at the TikTok UK office, in London. - With a billion users, TikTok has rapidly become one of the most important players in the music industry, and now has its sights set on revolutionising the way artists are discovered and get paid. (Photo by Tolga Akmen \/ AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN\/AFP via Getty Images)\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/\",\"name\":\"It\u2019s time TikTok Australia came clean | The Strategist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/#primaryimage\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-13T20:00:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-13T19:08:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/8bd81e05e28cba72a1c28b5c93a28a3a\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"It\u2019s time TikTok Australia came clean\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/8bd81e05e28cba72a1c28b5c93a28a3a\",\"name\":\"Fergus Ryan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d846158f606f0855031acc99bfcd8df?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d846158f606f0855031acc99bfcd8df?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Fergus Ryan\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/fergus-ryan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"It\u2019s time TikTok Australia came clean | The Strategist","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"It\u2019s time TikTok Australia came clean | The Strategist","og_description":"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 ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/","og_site_name":"The Strategist","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org","article_published_time":"2022-07-13T20:00:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-07-13T19:08:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":683,"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1238371359.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Fergus Ryan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@ASPI_org","twitter_site":"@ASPI_org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fergus Ryan","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/","name":"The Strategist","description":"ASPI's analysis and commentary site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1238371359.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/GettyImages-1238371359.jpg","width":1024,"height":683,"caption":"A photograph taken on February 9, 2022 shows the logo of video-focused social networking service TikTok, at the TikTok UK office, in London. - With a billion users, TikTok has rapidly become one of the most important players in the music industry, and now has its sights set on revolutionising the way artists are discovered and get paid. (Photo by Tolga Akmen \/ AFP) (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN\/AFP via Getty Images)"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/","url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/","name":"It\u2019s time TikTok Australia came clean | The Strategist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2022-07-13T20:00:27+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-13T19:08:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/8bd81e05e28cba72a1c28b5c93a28a3a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/its-time-tiktok-australia-came-clean\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"It\u2019s time TikTok Australia came clean"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/8bd81e05e28cba72a1c28b5c93a28a3a","name":"Fergus Ryan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-AU","@id":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d846158f606f0855031acc99bfcd8df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8d846158f606f0855031acc99bfcd8df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Fergus Ryan"},"url":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/author\/fergus-ryan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/714"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73816"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73822,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73816\/revisions\/73822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}