Prolific TikTokker Mark Parton took to TikTok to oppose the proposed ban. Image: Mark Parton TikTok.
There’s an old saying I think is still okay to quote: you can’t be half pregnant.
When it comes to banning TikTok on government devices, governments have definitely gone for the half-pregnant approach.
If the point is to thwart the Chinese from infiltrating our data and top-level secrets, then the ban seems pretty pointless, especially here in the ACT.
Regular readers of my column would know that if the world were to announce a ban on all social media apps tomorrow, I would be the first person doing cartwheels down Northbourne Avenue. I know I am old and behind the times, but nothing will change my view that social media is the devil in disguise.
That is not why the Feds have banned TikTok, though. It’s all about spying.
The ACT Government agreed to follow the lead of the Federal Government and ban anyone in the ACT who has a government-provided device from downloading TikTok on said device. Australia has been a bit slow to the party, given the US, UK and much of Europe have already gone down this path.
Some of Canberra’s MLAs are prolific TikTokkers. My younger colleagues tell me Mark Parton, Johnathan Davis and Michael Pettersson not only post often but are considered by those in the know to be pretty good at it.
(The few times I have looked at TikTok, it seems to mostly be made up of people dancing and pranking. Messrs Parton, Davis and Pettersson, I understand, don’t do any of that nonsense.)
Here’s where the half-pregnant analogy comes in. The ACT Government ban applies to all government-issued devices but not to private devices that might be used to access government documents.
Davis and Pettersson confirmed this week they do not have government-issued mobile phones. They use their private devices for TikTok but also use those same devices to access government files and documents.
So what is the point of the ban? If we are to believe what we are being told, mainly by the US Government, the Chinese are very clever in using TikTok to spy on us. So it’s fair to assume the Chinese Government will be just as happy to use TikTok on the MLAs’ private devices to have a good old sniff around in our government affairs.
TikTok may well be the Chinese Government’s not-so-secret way of infiltrating state secrets around the world but there are other reasons I’d be pretty happy to see it gone forever.
The UK’s data watchdog recently fined TikTok about £12.7 million for allowing more than a million UK children under 13 to use the platform. It turns out TikTok turned a blind eye to the young kids sharing videos, despite concerns raised internally.
The watchdog said TikTok may have used the kids’ data to track and profile them. I can’t imagine any parent who would not be alarmed by this.
I suggested to some of my young colleagues the world would be a better place without TikTok. It was like I asked them to give up a lung.
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