TikTok (2021) - full transcript

- TikTok has very
much become a way

for the young generation

to express ourselves
in every way.

You can be yourself, you're
at home, you're filming,

and there's always
gonna be like millions

of people watching you.

I like this one. Look and see.

You never know when
you could blow up.

- I think every
young kid's dream

is to be successful online.

The Chinese
social media platform,



TikTok, has
changed the internet.

It's become the most
popular app in the world.

- It's fishing
videos, it's cooking.

You can make skits,
singing, dancing.

Literally everything you
can think of, TikTok have.

- It's not an app on
their phone anymore.

It's their livelihood.

It's how they communicate
with their friends.

It's how they see their world.

That's a part that I
don't think everybody

has adjusted to yet.

- We're really at risk of having
generations of young people

that performed identities
in response to something

that a technology platform
prescribes to be the new normal.



Behind the shiny dance videos,

the platform is leading
people down dangerous paths.

- I'd like to think that I
wouldn't have struggled

with an eating disorder if I
hadn't downloaded TikTok.

- My claim with TikTok

is that they are harvesting
huge amounts of data illegally

without the consent of
children or their parents.

- If you just look at
TikTok in isolation,

it seems innocuous.

But it's really takes place
in this much larger context

of data collection,
artificial intelligence,

and a real effort by the Chinese

to consolidate influence in
the region and across the globe.

- Tonight on four
corners, TikTok.

In a joint investigation
with Hack on Triple J,

we're going down the rabbit hole

to reveal the dark side of app.

How the platform
censors political content

and harvests children's data.

And how the app's powerful
algorithm exposes people

to misinformation and
dangerous content.

- Hi, my name is Rory Eliza.

And, then what?

And what do you do?

- I am a full-time TikToker.

So in the morning I'll wake up,

maybe eight
o'clock, nine o'clock.

I'll check my phone,

check if my videos
have done well,

or how my followers are reacting

to the content that
I've just posted.

TikTok honestly, I get
so much love on there.

It's so weird because
that's my biggest platform,

is TikTok with 5
million followers.

It's crazy to think
that 5 million people,

that's people, it's
not just the number.

And if you really think
about it's 5 million people

that have tapped
that follow button.

They're all just so friendly and

they're kind of
like your family.

It's just weird, like you
don't know these people,

but they know so much about you

that they treat you
like a family member.

And on that note, welcome
to the new Rory Eliza.

Rory Eliza is one of millions

of young Australians
recording virtually every moment

of their lives to get
famous on TikTok.

- Get ready with me for a date.

Yo, I chose an outfit, let's go.

Transition, yeah.

So I think every
young kid's dream

is to, you know, be
successful online.

So, I think there's
definitely a group

where they all
wanna be influencers

'cause it's kind of
like the in thing now.

And I think that's
because of TikTok.

TikTok has been downloaded

more than 3 billion
times around the world.

It's become a
cultural phenomenon.

I'm 21 and just

learned how to
do my own laundry.

Some tomatoes and some cheese.

Dude, no you're
gotta go late like, hey.

Oh, okay, okay. Okay.

Everything is about going viral.

The dance, started by someone

in their living room
and uploaded to TikTok,

can turn into a
stadium full of people,

performing it in unison.

- I like how creative
you can be on it.

Like it's just so fun
to go on that app

and just express your real self.

Rory started posting
comedic skits on TikTok

and her following snowballed.

- No worries. I'll scan that one
right through for you right now.

This was her first viral video.

It got nearly 14 million views.

- How about some Peking duck?

Oh yeah, but we actually
don't have the Peking duck.

But we've got this
sneaking goose.

What an odd name.

It is pretty normal for a book.

In 2019, Rory
decided to leave school

to become a full time TikToker.

- Wait, wait, is this a library?

School was just one of those
things. I just was not good at.

I decided to leave school
when I was in year 11

and I was never there, you know.

I was always in
Sydney doing meetings

or presentations
for TikTok ends.

I just wasn't there. And
when I would come to school,

I would have no
idea what we're doing.

'Cause you know, I've
been away for heaps of days.

No worries at all. Thanks
for coming to our library.

School, you can
go back and do it at TAFE.

You can go back any
time and do it if you need it.

But you may never get
this opportunity again.

So, we just thought it
was worth leaving school

and pursuing all the
business opportunities

while they were there for her.

- No worries at all. Thanks
for coming to our library.

- How do you feel about the
fact that 5 million people are

watching her content?

- It's incredible.
It's even, when she

goes live, there was
a time she went live

and she had 22,000 people
watching her in her room.

And I just sort of, in
my mind, goes back

to Elton John concert here.

And she had more
people watching her.

Than we had at that
Elton John concert.

And it kind of way
out that's happening

in my daughter's
bedroom at the moment.

It was a bit yeah, different.

- Big fashion and
cosmetic brands

started noticing Rory
success on TikTok

and wanted to tap into
a growing audience.

Companies sponsor
influences like Rory.

And businesses pay TikTok
to advertise on the platform.

This is central to the app's
lucrative business model.

- In this work industry
being an influencer,

you have to present
yourself as a brand, you know.

We aren't really people
anymore, we're brands.

We're selling
products for brands.

So, you kind of
gotta look the part.

The money involved
it's enough to live off.

So, it's a pretty fair amount.

I'm about in the
medium to high range

of incomes in Australia.

So yeah. Very, very
descent.

- Well, it's hard not to
even be jealous sometimes

'cause you look at
our life and you know,

we get up and we go to
work and we come home.

And she can earn money

that can take us days
to earn in minutes.

- I found myself
driving and just crying,

having like a total breakdown.

And I found myself having

some really quite
nasty thoughts and-

- Rory shares her
life with 5 million people.

Even her lowest moments.

- Why am I meant
to be on this earth.

Like, why does no one like me?

Why do I have no friends?

But most days
she feels very alone.

- Okay. That's
an old name for,

Being away from people, it's
definitely lonely, you know.

I film, oh, four videos a day.

That's a good three
hours outta my day.

And then I've got
another eight hours

and I'm like, what the
heck am I gonna do

for the rest of the day? Like
I can't ring out my friends.

Like, y'all, want to hang
out? 'Cause they're at work.

So it definitely
gets lonely at times.

And you know,
sometimes if you're reading

the hate comments
and the stress load,

it can be so much for your body

and you're just overwhelmed
and you're lonely.

So that can also
creep into depression.

- Catherine hasn't
had a question.

I'm happy to return to you
but let's just keep it civil.

Andrew?

Catherine.

With people stuck
at home during lockdown,

desperate for entertainment.

TikTok became the world's
most downloaded app in 2020.

And it's continued to
hold that title this year.

- TikTok in Australia has
seen the same kind of bump

in 2020 as elsewhere
in the world.

In October of 2020, there were

an estimated 2.5
million users on TikTok.

Which was about a 50% growth
from earlier on in the year.

Of the popular
social media apps,

TikTok is the most addictive.

Late TikTok advertising
data shows users spend

an average of an hour and
a half on the app each day.

- You know it's like 8:00 PM
and I'm watching and watching

and then I look up at
my clock and it's 2:00 AM.

And I'm like, where the
heck did those hours go?

It's cause this, um, "For
You" page is so addictive.

It's just so spot on.

TikTok's algorithm
is its most valuable asset.

It's designed to
determine your interests

and send you
personalized content

to keep you on the app
for as long as possible.

- I went and saw my mama.

And I went and got my
hair done, as well just to-

- TikTok works by
recommending content to you

through your
activity on the app.

So the more that you
scroll through the app,

the better the
recommendations are tailored

to your specific interests.

Rather than selecting
content that you want to watch

like you would on
YouTube or on Netflix.

You primarily access
content through one main feed,

which is called the For
You page on TikTok.

Which is essentially just
an endlessly scrolling,

algorithmically
curated feed of videos

that refreshes each
time you open the app.

As soon as
you sign up to TikTok,

the app starts collecting data

about you, your
location, gender, and age,

and also your facial data
to figure out who you are

and what kind of
videos you want to see.

- Your face is a form
of biometric information.

And your face can be
analyzed to distinguish a range

of personality and
demographic traits.

TikTok collects your facial data

every time you make a video
or use a filter on the app.

And can even access photos
and videos saved on your phone

that aren't being
used on the platform.

To understand how an app
like TikTok interprets that data

scientists in Melbourne
have developed

what's called a
biometric mirror.

- So biometric
mirror for instance,

is trained by way of
artificial intelligence

to distinguish how
intelligent you are,

how attractive, how
weird, how responsible

and how emotionally
unstable you are.

The interesting thing
there is of course,

is that biometric mirror
bases it's assumptions

on a single
snapshot of your face.

So all of these assumptions
are generated based

on the exact
appearance of your face

at that exact microsecond
that the photo has been taken.

The TikTok algorithm
might read your face

and think that you are dealing

with a significant
mental health challenge.

You might be
presented with videos

that are created by
users with-going through

a similar challenge
at that time.

And it might really create a
very colored worldview for you

where it's really hard to deal

with your mental health
challenge at that time.

Lauren Hemings
is studying to be a midwife.

She used to spend
her uni breaks,

scrolling through TikTok.

- I think it was
quarantine boredom

that kind of motivated
me to download it.

It was quite an innocent hope

of just getting a
good laugh, really.

You know, like
getting funny videos

and seeing what was on it.

I never had the intention

of making TikToks
or sharing them.

It was more just kind of from
the viewpoint of a viewer.

Lauren started following

a popular fitness
influencer on the app.

- There's one woman who had
like quite a similar body type

to me and she'd expressed
that she was unhappy

with that body type.

And she had started tracking
calories over quarantine.

She had lost a really, really
significant amount of weight.

The algorithm
then flooded her feed

with content promoting
unhealthy weight loss.

- I was no longer saying
funny dance videos or anything.

It was just like
this complete focus

on that like fitness and
healthy lifestyle goal.

- TikTok pushed Lauren
toward the popular trend

of meticulously tracking how
many calories you eat in a day.

Something researches, warn,
promotes disordered eating.

The hashtag,
What I eat in a day,

has more than 7
billion views on TikTok.

- It turned into
like this obsession

and I felt that I
could not eat anything

without knowing how
many calories it contained

and without meeting, you
know, my target number

of calories throughout the day.

There was a few months
where I didn't put anything

into my mouth that
I had not weighed.

Four months
after downloading TikTok,

Lauren admitted to
her friends and family

she had an eating disorder.

- I'd like to think that I
wouldn't have struggled

with an eating disorder if I
hadn't downloaded TikTok.

I think, you know, TikTok

was the main contributor
to the development of that.

Young users are
increasingly turning to TikTok

to find and spread information
on how to restrict food

and hide their disordered,
eating from their families.

- What they do is they
actually share content

of what they go through and
what they have done for the day

in the fascination
to become thin.

So they would share recipes.

They would share diet plans.

They would share how
you need to be disciplined.

For someone who's
vulnerable and desperate,

they would follow
anyone's advice.

None of this advice
is actually good

because some of these
advice is, oh lick a pumpkin

for your lunch, but don't eat.

Drink a liter of water
and you should be fine.

- I was super hesitant
to get on TikTok

because I'd heard that
it was a really bad space

for people with
eating disorders.

Because the algorithm
knows everything

and then it would
curate your feed

to be interested
in that kind of stuff.

Claire Benstead
has been in and out of hospital

for anorexia for
more than five years.

She decided to download TikTok

to find support and to
promote her earrings business.

- You want that support

because it's such
an isolating illness.

And there's so many
people in my life

that don't get it and
don't understand it.

Claire says the
TikTok algorithm identified

she had an eating
disorder and she noticed

an immediate change to the
types of videos on her feed.

- So it went from
being, you know,

my algorithm was, you
know, Australian humor

and musical theater humor,
and all of that kind of stuff

to just being eating
disorder content all the time.

And as I got sicker and
I got more obsessive,

all I could do was just
flick through my phone,

and look at this footage.

I spent hours on it
and just fixated on it.

I wasn't recovering it all.

I was actively relapsing.

Claire was admitted to hospital.

As part of her treatment, her
psychologists worked with her

to remove the toxic
content from her TikTok feed

by unfollowing accounts
and reporting videos.

How long did it actually
take you to get rid

of that eating disorder
content from your algorithm.

Ages.

Pretty much being in hospital,
so probably two months,

it took me to
change the algorithm.

When you're kind of
scrolling through like this-

- Even while Claire was
showing me her

cleaned up TikTok feed,

videos about eating
disorders began reappearing.

Hey, there we go.
Here's one right now.

Just every five or six videos.

And so, I'm in a good spot
that this doesn't trigger me.

- So even though you're
saying not interested,

it's still coming up?
- It's still coming up.

If you report TikTok
videos, the company says

its moderators then
decide whether to ban them.

Which in turn is supposed

to teach the algorithm
to stop featuring them.

- I just say that
I'm not interested in that-

- TikToks policies,
say the app bans content

promoting, normalizing or
glorifying eating disorders.

And you can
say that it's offensive,

But when users like Claire,

have reported those
videos, they were told

they don't breach
any guidelines.

- You would think that, you
know, something this serious

and it's got the
highest mortality rate

of any mental illness,
you would think that,

that would be something
that you could report.

Because it is promoting
those behaviors

and it's making it worse.

TikTok also says it

bans pro eating
disorder hashtags

so users can search
for those videos.

And if they try to, a number

for eating disorder
support service,

the Butterfly Foundation
automatically pops up.

But users find ways around it.

- But the issue is now
that it's ever evolving.

Like there's a hashtag
now that people

with eating disorders use.

And you would never guess that

it was an eating
disorder hashtag.

Like it's after a famous singer.

So just changing them
to be completely irrelevant

from what an eating disorder is.

And so it's so hard
to escape now.

And I think it's
really hard for TikTok

to keep up with that all.

- There are mechanisms in place

to screen some of that content.

But a lot of it is also reliant
on human moderation.

And when you consider
the amount of videos

and the volume that is
being uploaded to TikTok,

it's a very difficult
task to imagine

human moderators
can catch everything.

Last year,
TikTok established a council

of outside experts to advise

the company about
content moderation.

David Polgar is one of them.

- As we know with great power
comes great responsibility.

There's a lot of power
in TikToks algorithm.

Therefore you have
to constantly be aware

of how it's impacting
other individuals

and other communities.

I think comparatively
speaking TikTok

has done a pretty decent job

with being more
reflective on rabbit holes

and how that can
affect individuals.

But at the same time, you're
dealing with human behaviour.

You're dealing with bad actors.

You're dealing with
major differences

of how people define appropriate
versus inappropriate.

And we have this tricky kind

of balancing act that's
constantly happening.

- TikTok's business model
is built on creating a fun,

glossy and glamorous
version of the world.

And the company has been found
to strictly control content

that doesn't fit
with that image.

In March last year, TikTok
policy documents were leaked.

Showing content
moderators were instructed

to suppress posts by creators

considered ugly,
poor or disabled.

The documents said,
"Videos, including

people who had chubby or obese

with ugly facial looks,

like too many wrinkles
or facial deformities

and other disabilities
should be excluded."

TikTok has said it no longer
engages in these practices.

- I don't want to
admit it, but looks

have a lot to do with it.

And you know, we're
all secretly a bit vain.

As much you don't
wanna admit it,

you go for looks over
non-looks, you know.

So I think looks definitely
have a lot to do with it.

And if you look at all the
really big time influencers,

they're all beautiful.

Like, if you look at
all these influencers,

they're all stunning, like
nothing wrong with them.

So I think looks definitely
have a lot to do with it.

Much of TikTok's popularity

is driven by dance trends,

choreographed by black creators

and then copied
by white influencers.

But black content makers say

that the platform actively
discriminates against them.

Think it's high
time we let black women

on this app also be famous
for doing the bare minimum.

Like I should be able
to just sit here in silence,

and let y'all look at me

and the next thing you know,
I have a million followers.

- Petition for black
people for the rest

of April to stop talking.

- There have been instances

of black creator
led mass walk offs

from the platform
called Blackouts.

Where on a certain day,

black creators will
stop using the platform

or urge other creators
to leave the platform

because of TikToks inaction
and failure to respond to

or engage with
some of the criticisms

and the discourse that
black creators have raised.

So if the company continues
to be reactive and responsive,

rather than proactive and
really meaningfully engage,

then these issues are
gonna continue to occur.

- Often, it makes me
quite furious, I guess,

'cause it's like
these black creators,

they got talent, they're
out here dancing

and showing what
they're capable of.

So it's kind of very
much disappointing

and hard on us when
we're out here expected

to have all of these in
order to get the views

in order to get the
likes and shares.

But no matter how much we try,

we're just not gonna get that.

- Unice Wani is an 18 year
old TikTok creator from Perth.

- I like this one.
Look and see.

I feel like the more I go viral,

the more I can basically
show the younger generation

and show more
colored girls, I guess,

or people out there like
I'm okay in my own skin

and I love myself the way I am.

I don't care what social
media says about me.

What people on the other side
of the screen says about me.

You can be yourself
at the end of the day.

Let me quickly address this-

- As her following grew,

so did the hateful comments.

And she decided to
confront the issue on the app.

- So a majority of you
guys still feel the need

to comment about my skin
color and about how dark I am

and about how black, black,
black, black, black I am.

Well, guess what?

I'm black and I'm so proud.

- Unice says often
her videos are hidden

or muted from the TikTok feed.

Meaning few people see them.

A practice known
as Shadow Banning.

- Are you pressed?

Are you mad?

Are you upset?

Are you sad?

Sorry, what?

I guess you tend to
get a lot of shadow bans

for speaking up about
stuff such as racism.

Stuff you couldn't mention.

One word, black,
could say all of this

and your video could
get shadow banned.

When you post a video,
the video, just it's on the app.

It's just, you're not
gonna get any views for it.

So you can see it. It's just
other people can't see it

when they go onto
your account as well.

So it's up there. It's just,
it's not going to get any views.

Last year
TikTok creators noticed

the algorithm was
suppressing posts

with the hashtag Black
Lives Matter or George Floyd.

- So word on the street
is that TikTok has banned

the Black Lives Matter hashtag.

One of those
creators was Sydney man,

Paniora Nukunuku,
who had created

a video using a pool table

to explain the Black Lives
Matter issue to Australians.

- This is a white
Australia table.

And they pretty much
had 200 years head-start

and they had established
everything in the country.

So their break looks like this.

Bro, can you get home
ownership in business?

Beautiful.

That was spicy.

That blew up bigger
than I thought it would.

I just need to put this here.

Boy, what the,

- Don't worry. It's trauma,
injustice and discrimination.

But I said, sorry,
so it should be fine.

So just go for it, bro.

It was the biggest video
at the time that I've done.

I think you're just
being lazy, hey.

I don't know why.

Oh, I do know why,
because it was good.

I shouldn't look at
the camera, but I'm

just really proud right now.

Using these two cue balls,

I'll explain to
you, that resulted

in my account getting banned

for like seven days.

I don't know why.

They claimed that my video
breached community guidelines,

which is extremely vague
because there is no swearing,

there is no explicit language.

There's no nudity or
explicit like sexual stuff.

None of that.
And my account got banned.

- The Black Lives Matter
is trending on TikTok,

which is ironic considering
how much time TikTok spends

silencing the voices
of black creators.

TikTok apologized
for suppressing hashtags,

referring to Black Lives Matter,

blaming a glitch
in the algorithm.

- Let's take a moment
of silence for this man.

- The company responded
with a new initiative

for black creators called the
TikTok Black Creator Programme.

I've spoken to creators
who had been approached

for that programme, who
felt that it was lip service.

It wasn't really a
well-meaning effort

to engage with black voices
and engage with discourse

that is important to
black communities.

Paniora, has more than
180,000 followers on TikTok.

He often posts about
living with a disability.

- So growing up
with the fake leg,

I always got in trouble
every time I park

in my disabled spot.

The first video I
did, was me going up

to a pool and telling
my friends to record me,

dip my fake leg in the
water to test the water out.

It was a really dumb idea.

But for some reason,
people loved it.

And in this space
of eight hours,

it hit about 780,000 views.

If you have this many
followers and that many likes,

it's 'cause you're pretty.

If you have this many followers

and the same amount of likes,

you're just funny.

Paniora ran into trouble
with the TikTok censors

when he posted a
video of a confrontation

with someone
who was telling him,

he shouldn't have
a disability permit

- So this old lady had
the nerve to ask me

if this is my disability card.

This,

I wonder if this is enough.

The video was taken down.

TikTok said it breached the
app's community guidelines.

Paniora appealed
and it was put back up.

But he's had other videos

about his disability
removed as well.

- You don't need
to worry about it.

The video got taken down
and I didn't even know it

until I looked back
at the hashtags

and decided to see which
videos that I've done

have like made it to the
top and that wasn't there.

I appealed it and I don't
know why that was taken down.

Don't ever do that again.

Do I feel like TikTok
is being racist?

I don't know.

Has TikTok been
hit up in the past,

around the moderators being told

to limit the exposure of
disabled people and ugly people?

Yes. They've been
called out on that.

Is this happening again?

I hope not, but it
definitely feels like it has.

We know
that to decolonize Palestine

means also to decolonize-

- I'll probably keep
moving, get some shots.

In may of this year,

Paniora posted a video
from a pro-Palestine rally.

But TikTok's
algorithm flagged it.

And it was instantly taken down.

Other creators posting
TikToks about Palestine

have said they've
experienced the same thing.

- When TikTok started
removing my videos

about the protests in regards

to the Palestinian
situation, I was furious.

I was like, why? There
is nothing in these videos

that would justify,
like a removal.

There really isn't.

- One of the big
problems with TikTok

and the unique nature
of its opaque algorithm,

is that it's very
difficult to understand

or to recognise when
censorship is taking place.

People came together to try to-

- So it is possible
for content on the app

to be promoted or demoted
without anyone knowing.

- I'm so sick and tired of
every social media platform

silencing Palestinian voices.

- But we also see evidence
of how content moderation

that takes place in China.

How that type of
thinking is still applied

to TikTok outside of China.

TikTok is owned by
Chinese start-up, ByteDance,

which is believed to be
worth more than $250 billion.

It's heavily regulated by
the Chinese government.

And there's a Communist
Party Internal Committee

in ByteDance, which ensures
the parties political goals

are pursued alongside
the company's.

- We have to be extra concerned

about how apps like
TikTok can be used

as a vector for censorship
and surveillance.

- The Australian
Strategic Policy Institute

did the first
academic investigation

into censorship on TikTok,

concluding the company
actively uses the algorithm

to hide political speech
it deems controversial.

The research was funded
by the US State Department

and found anti-Russian
government videos

as well as hashtags
about LGBTQI issues

and the mass
detention of Uyghurs

were among those
being suppressed.

- The company has cooperated
with public security bureaus

all throughout China
and including in Xinjiang.

And that means that they work,

they coordinate with
government agencies

to ensure that the
information space in China

is pumped full of
this propaganda.

That shows a very rosy picture

of what's happening in Xinjiang.

In 2018, then CEO of ByteDance

was forced to
publicly apologise.

Saying one of the
company's platforms

had gone against China's
core socialist values.

- We have a very
clear public statement

from the founder of ByteDance,

that this is something that
he's committed to doing

and to ensuring that
the company continues

to push this type of propaganda,
certainly inside of China.

Whether that is then extended
out to the rest of the world

via apps like TikTok,
is another question.

And it's something
worth watching.

In a statement TikTok said,

it does not moderate
or remove content

based on political
sensitivities.

And has never
content at the request

of the Chinese government.

It also said it
embraces diversity

and denied it discriminates
against any creator

or community on our platform.

- We've known for a
better part of a decade,

both here in the
US and in Australia,

about the concerns
raised by the prevalence

of Chinese
telecommunications companies.

And so then the next
question became,

well, what about all
these apps that have,

of companies that are
headquartered in China?

They're collecting tremendous
amounts of user data.

They have access to
the devices of individuals.

Jamil Jaffer is Founder

of the National Security
Institute in Washington.

And has advised the us
government on cyber-security.

- In China, it's all the
central government,

the Communist Party.

There's no separation
between the branches.

And so, when these
apps have all that data,

it's much easier for
the Chinese government

to simply obtain
access to that data.

- My understanding is that,

about a quarter of
the world's population

is a member of TikTok
if I'm not mistaken.

So that's obviously an
enormous amount of data

that's being generated.

That's being
handed over for free

to that single social network

that has pretty
much full control

over what it does to the data.

It might analyze it to
generate personalized content

for you, but it might
also use that data

to offer technology
products and services

to other companies
moving forward in the future.

- Hello, it's Avani in Sydney.

How's it going?

- Hi.

Anne Longfield is England's

former children's commissioner.

Anne's interview, take one.

- She's representing
millions of kids on TikTok

in the UK and Europe in a class
action against the company.

- My claim with TikTok
at the moment is that,

they are harvesting huge
amounts of data illegally

without the consent of
children or their parents.

And they aren't
giving the right level

of transparency about
what happens to that data,

or actually what
that data includes.

Almost a third of TikTok's
Australian users are under 14.

Lawyers say TikTok
takes personal information

like phone numbers, videos,
locations, and facial data

from kids without their consent.

As well as the photos and
videos recorded using TikTok,

but not uploaded or
saved to the platform.

- Given the level of data
and the lack of transparency

around there, it's
difficult to imagine

that this isn't just a kind of

information gathering service,

which is thinly veiled as some
kind of enjoyable platform,

which appeals to young children.

So the real incentive here,

when you look at it
in really cold terms,

seems to be, to gather
as much data as possible

to really be able
to monetize that.

TikTok's already
been fined millions of dollars

in the US and South Korea
for harvesting children's data.

The company restricted
app access for children

and has taken down millions
of under-age users' accounts.

There's been no legal
action in Australia.

- I think that governments
do have a responsibility

to intervene to
ensure that children

are protected in whatever
kind of environment they're in.

And you see those
protections and measures

in terms of the
physical environment,

in terms of their
safety, you know,

in the communities they live in,

in the environments they are.

But it hasn't always
been the case online.

And some governments have

struggled to see
what that means.

If the case is successful,

TikTok could have
to pay children

from the UK and Europe,
billions in compensation.

TikTok is fighting the case.

In a statement,
the company said,

"Privacy and safety are
top priorities for TikTok

and we have robust
policies, processes,

and technologies in place
to help protect all users

and our teenage
users in particular.

We believe the claims lack merit

and intend to vigorously
defend the action."

The US government
is reviewing TikTok

and hasn't ruled out a ban.

- The real question
you ask is, what

about the national
security implications?

So, okay. Yes, a lot of
people are using it, right.

But why does that matter?

And it matters, I think,
because of the access,

it gives you to this
large amount of data.

You never think about the
Chinese government in Beijing,

having videos of
you in your home,

outside your home, at
the park with your kids,

knowing who your kids play with.

I mean, that's
what they have now

potentially with this data set.

We've seen now two
consecutive presidents

sign executive orders,

making clear that they
are very concerned

about the national
security implications

of TikTok's data collection.

As well as the impact it has

on the privacy and civil
liberties of Americans.

India has
announced a ban on TikTok.

And in July last year, Prime
Minister Scott Morrison

ordered a review by intelligence
agencies into the app.

We are always
very mindful of those risks

and we are always
monitoring them very closely.

And if we've considered,
there is a need

to take further action
than we are taking now,

then I can tell you, we
won't be shy about it.

- It's certainly a
security concern

that the data of
Australian users

is potentially going
back to Beijing.

TikTok maintained
that this is not the case.

And our analysis showed that

there's certainly
not a fire hose

of content that's being
sent back to Beijing.

But that doesn't mean that,

that content can't be accessed

from Beijing, if
that's required.

How are you going?

- I'm good, thank
you. How are you?

TikTok maintains
Australian users' data

is held on servers in
the US and Singapore.

And that it has
never provided data

to the Chinese government.

Staff in the Home Affairs
and Defense Departments

have been told not to
have TikTok on their phones

because of security risks.

But Scott Morrison said
there wasn't enough evidence

to ban TikTok in Australia.

- The scope of the
investigation did seem

to be quite limited.

And that scope is not
really enough to be able

to tell the rest of Australia

and regular Australian citizens,

whether it's a good idea
for them to be using the app.

- There should definitely
be another more rigorous

and lengthy review into TikTok

to fully understand the
risks that TikTok presents.

- And so if you just look
at TikTok in isolation,

and say, well, it's
just this one app,

and it's just kids
doing dancing videos.

It seems innocuous.

But it's really takes place
in this much larger context

of data collection,
artificial intelligence,

and a real effort by the
Chinese to consolidate influence

in the region and
across the globe.

In just two years,

TikTok has cemented
itself as the app of choice

for millions of Australians.

- So you guys kept telling
me to go on the Voice 2021.

So, I did.

There are serious concerns

that TikToks fun and
beautiful version of reality

is distorting the way
we see the world.

And questions about whether
its users understand the risks.

- So we're really at risk
of having generations

of young people
that haven't been able

to form their own
identity in natural ways.

And instead have
formed identities

in response to something
that a technology

or a technology
platform prescribes

to be the normal
or the new normal.

- Last time this lady
came up to me and go,

you don't look disabled enough.

I don't look disabled enough?

- I understand that
TikTok is trying its very best

to make the platform
palatable to everyone

by just having fun dance
videos and lip sync videos.

But I know that my
content gives value

to so many people
who look like me.

Who live the same life like me.

Who are brown like me.

- I ended up cutting off
TikTok like after a few months.

But even with that,
like it still left me

with the eating
disorder, you know.

Like, TikTok kind of led to
the development and then

it has taken a really,
really long time to fix that.

TikTok isn't out
here to help people.

I don't think it's
coming to the world

with this intention
of helping people.

If they're going to make
money off of something,

then they will make
money off of something.

I think they maybe
need to realise

the impact that is
having on people.