TikTok wrote to Australia’s election regulator at least twice in 2023 “to encourage” the commission to create an account on the app, according to documents obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws.
TikTok Australia’s director of public policy, Ella Woods-Joyce, wrote to Australian Electoral Commission in September about starting an “official presence” on the app during the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum, and again in October.
Pointing out that the AEC had a presence on platforms including X, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, Woods-Joyce wrote that “an official AEC presence on TikTok would be a valuable tool to help support the provision of authoritative information to our community of more than 8.5 million Australians”.
TikTok was a key battleground during the referendum, and was a particular focus for the no campaign. Guardian Australia analysis found the account run by Fair Australia – the key group opposing the voice – far outstripped the yes side in both number of followers and views, and even dominated pro-voice hashtags.
The letters were sent amid a challenging year for the app: the Australian government banned the use of TikTok on government devices in April, following similar moves by governments in the US, New Zealand and the EU.
The protective security direction prohibits use of the app due to what it deemed to be “significant security and privacy risks … arising from extensive collection of user data and exposure to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government that conflict with Australian law”. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is headquartered in Beijing.
“Exemptions will only be granted on a case-by-case basis and with appropriate security mitigations in place,” the attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said at the time.
In her September letter, Woods-Joyce suggested that an AEC account on TikTok would comply with permitted exceptions to the ban, which include use for compliance activities or as part of work to counter mis- or disinformation.
The electoral commissioner Tom Rogers told a government committee investigating foreign interference in July that his agency had no intention to join TikTok. “One of the key reasons we’re not on TikTok now is that I’m conscious of the broad public debate about TikTok,” he said.
The AEC’s decision not to create an official presence on the platform was informed by the Attorney General’s Department’s decision, according to an AEC spokesperson, Jess Lilley on Thursday.
A TikTok spokesperson said: “As it has at previous Australian state and federal elections, TikTok seeks to actively engage with electoral authorities to ensure our platform supports democratic processes and meets community expectations. The 2023 voice referendum was no different.”
In her second letter, addressed to Rogers in October, Woods-Joyce wrote to “once again invite the AEC to establish an official presence on TikTok”, and noted: “We have been surprised by the low level of official engagement from the AEC to date.”
Woods-Joyce pointed to initiatives such as the app’s factchecking partnership with Australian Associated Press during the referendum, and said the company had acted promptly on two content reports it had received from the AEC.
The documents show that TikTok removed content in August that contained misinformation about the voting process, including that the referendum would include “an additional secret question”.
Lilley said the AEC had made a limited number of content referrals to TikTok during the referendum.
“Our preference remains to assist users to comply with our regulatory requirements by providing advice and adopting an educative approach ahead of taking any other enforcement action,” she said. “The AEC found that TikTok users responded well to this approach, removing the need for further requests to the platform.
“The AEC regards its relationship and ongoing collaboration with platforms, including TikTok, to be of the utmost importance.”
The documents released under FoI include correspondence between most major social media companies and the AEC during the referendum, and reveal multiple attempts by the AEC to remove content that identified or harassed staff.
YouTube removed a live stream that contained the name and mobile number of a staff member in October, and the AEC also referred a range of content to X, including personal attacks on a staff member “based solely on footage taken of her while at work for the AEC”.
“If this is allowed to continue it may have a negative effect on our ability to hire and maintain staff to facilitate the delivery of free and fair elections in Australia,” the AEC wrote.
In September Guardian Australia reported that the AEC had struggled to get X to act on posts that raised “concerns it is inciting violence against AEC staff” before the referendum, and expressed frustration with “nil actions” by the company on AEC reports in April and May.
