Labor is considering banning TikTok. But what about other China-linked apps?

As the Labor federal government circles banning TikTok on government devices over its China links, millions of Australians are downloading and using other Chinese-owned applications that could be subject to similar concerns.

Governments around the world have been vexed by how to respond to TikTok, a Chinese-owned social video platform with more than a billion global users. 

Last week, United States politicians grilled TikTok’s CEO as they publicly mulled over potentially banning the app. Concerns over the data collection practices were raised, as well as fears that the app could be used to promote propaganda.

Critics argue that a Chinese law that requires any citizen to assist with state intelligence work from competing social media apps means that TikTok presents a greater risk than social media competitors such as Facebook or Twitter. A submission to an Australian government committee this month argued that corporate structure TikTok’s parent company TikTok closer to a “ ‘hybrid’ state-private entity”. 

Home Affairs and Cyber Security Minister Clare O’Neil has been handed a security review of TikTok and other social media apps by her department. There’s widespread speculation the government will soon ban Tiktok on government-owned devices but as yet the idea of banning the app from Australia has not been mooted. 

While this debate rages, less attention has been given to other popular Chinese-linked applications used by millions of Australians.

App monitoring service SensorTower lists four Chinese-owned apps in the top 20 most popular applications in Australia on both Apple and Google app stores this week:

• TikTok;
• Video-editing app CapCut, which is also owned by ByteDance;
• Chinese-founded fast fashion shopping app SHEIN; 
• Chinese-owned online shopping marketplace Temu.

These apps collect personal information such as name, email address, phone number and financial information but fall short of some of TikTok’s public data collection practices such as contact book access. And although popular, their use pales in comparison to the extremely popular TikTok. 

Still, risks around data collection that led to the departments of Defence and Home Affairs banning the applications from their devices also apply to other Chinese-owned apps such as these. 

A spokesperson for O’Neil confirmed she had received the security review and was considering its recommendations: “We are working to undo the years of inaction under the previous government, who failed to act or even provide advice about these issues as they developed.”