Federal MPs have called for tougher restrictions on social media platforms, including a potential ban on the Chinese messaging service WeChat, over foreign interference concerns.
Today's report by senators investigating how foreign powers use social media to interfere in Australia makes 17 recommendations, including transparency regulations.
A big concern raised was how China's intelligence agencies require TikTok and WeChat's parent companies to secretly cooperate with them.
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The MPs said the federal government should investigate banning WeChat on government devices and expanding the current TikTok ban to devices used by contractors.
Companies such as WeChat and TikTok and WeChat represented "unique national security risks" because their parent companies, ByteDance and Tencent, are headquartered in China and subject to its national security laws, committee chair Coalition Senator Paterson said.
"Platforms like TikTok and WeChat that are subject to the control of authoritarian regimes illustrate the broader cyber security risk to sensitive government information," he said in a statement.
The report said foreign interference and espionage is the biggest security concern facing Australia.
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It threatened the country's government, academic sector, industry, media and local communities.
In April, the federal government banned the use of TikTok on politicians' and public servants' work phones, due to major security and privacy risks.
It followed similar bans by other nations including the US, Canada, UK, and New Zealand in forbidding the use of the app on government phones amid fears of spying from China.
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