Security News > 2023 > August > Australian Senate committee recommends bans on Chinese social media apps
An Australian Senate Committee has recommended banning Chinese social media apps in the land down under, on grounds the Communist Party of China uses them to spread propaganda and misinformation.
The Select Committee on Foreign Interference through Social Media yesterday filed its final report [PDF] which outlines the reason the committee convened: social media has become the public square in which policy debate tales place, but "Is increasingly being weaponized to spread disinformation to deliberately mislead or obscure the truth for malicious or deceptive purposes." Plenty of that disinformation comes from foreign powers, "As part of a broader, integrated strategic campaign to advance their own national interests at Australia's expense."
Another recommendation calls for social media outfits to "Make their platform open to independent cyber analysts and researchers to examine cyber-enabled foreign interference activities." The report also calls for disclosure of "Which countries they have employees operating in who could access Australian data and keeps auditable logs of any instance of Australian data being transmitted, stored or accessed offshore."
The suggested transparency requirements would apply to all social media platforms - meaning the likes of WeChat would need to have a local office while Elon Musk's X would also need to return.
The report also recommends consideration of banning WeChat from running on government devices, using the same mechanisms that were used to ban TikTok.
The committee was comprised of two members from the governing Labor party, two from the opposition, and one from the Australian Greens - meaning it represented a broad spectrum of political views and was not partisan.