China is manipulating global media through censorship, data harvesting and covert purchases of foreign news outlets, according to a new report from the US state department, which warned the trend could lead to a “sharp contraction” of global freedom of expression. The report released on Thursday found that Beijing had spent billions of dollars annually on information manipulation efforts, including by acquiring stakes in foreign media through “public and non-public means”, sponsoring online influencers and securing distribution agreements that promote unlabelled Chinese government content. The Chinese embassy in Washington did…
Tag: Data protection
WeChat user numbers plummet nearly 30% in Australia amid concerns of Chinese interference
WeChat has said its user numbers in Australia have declined almost 30% in the past three years, amid questions being raised about foreign interference on the app. Tencent-owned WeChat told a parliamentary committee examining foreign interference on social media that as of July 2023, the communications app favoured by Australia’s Chinese diaspora community had fewer than 500,000 daily active users in Australia. The company told the committee in 2020 that its user base was 690,000. No reason was given for the decline in user numbers in Australia in the past…
Australian government resists blanket WeChat ban despite restrictions by multiple departments
The Australian government is resisting issuing a ban on WeChat on government devices despite many government departments instituting their own bans after the TikTok edict earlier this month. TikTok was banned from government devices in early April over data collection and security concerns connected to the Chinese government. The move followed a review by the home affairs department which examined a range of social media platforms, but TikTok was the only app singled out for an immediate ban. At the time TikTok was banned, dozens of federal departments had already…
MPs call for UK to ban Chinese gene research firm from government contracts
Rishi Sunak is under pressure to follow the US and bar the Chinese genome research company BGI Group from government contracts as the firm recommitted to continue its work in the UK. MPs on the defence, foreign and health select committees along with former Lib Dem cabinet minister Alistair Carmichael have joined calls for action over fears that the company and others pose a security risk to genetic data in the UK. Last week, Washington added BGI subsidiaries BGI Research and BGI Tech Solutions to a trade blacklist due to…
China instructs state firms to phase out big four auditors
The Chinese government has reportedly instructed state-owned companies to phase out contracts with the big four accounting including KPMG and EY, as authorities try to address security concerns and curb the influence of western-linked auditors. China’s finance ministry is among the government entities that has issued informal guidance last month, urging state-owned corporations to let contracts with Deloitte, KPMG, EY and PwC expire, according to Bloomberg News. They have reportedly been told to use local auditors from China and Hong Kong, as part of efforts to support the local audit…
TikTok: how the west has turned on gen Z’s favourite app
The FBI has called it a national security threat. The US government has passed a law forcing officials to delete it from their phones. Texas senator Ted Cruz has denounced it as “a Trojan horse the Chinese Communist party can use to influence what Americans see, hear, and ultimately think”. And in March its CEO will defend its existence before the US Congress. For those unaware of the debate broiling on the other side of the Atlantic, the target of this strong rhetoric might prove surprising: an app best known…
TechScape: suspicious of TikTok? You’re not alone
What’s the problem with TikTok? It’s a harder question to answer than it seems. The social video app, which has joined Facebook/Instagram, YouTube and Twitter in the list of societally important social networks, is frequently spoken about with an air of suspicion, and it’s not hard to guess why: the app’s Chinese roots loom large in the conversation. (ByteDance, which owns TikTok, insists that it is headquartered in the Cayman Islands, one of the only instances I’ve seen of a company deciding that loudly proclaiming its paper HQ is located…
UK spy chief suggests Beijing risks ‘miscalculation’ over west’s resolve
China is at risk of “miscalculating through over-confidence” over Taiwan, said the MI6 head, Richard Moore, in a statement clearly intended to warn Beijing to back off any attempt to seize control of the island. Giving a rare speech, Britain’s foreign intelligence chief said in London that China was at risk of “believing its own propaganda” and that the country had become “the single greatest priority” for MI6 for the first time in its history. Moore did not mention Taiwan explicitly, but the status of the country, whose independence is…