Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Tuesday there was no evidence that Chinese-owned TikTok had abused the data of its hundreds of millions of users.

"We have had a good look at this, and there is no evidence for us to suggest... that there is any misuse of any people's data," he told the Aspen Security Forum meeting in Aspen, Colorado.

"There are plenty of things that are on TikTok that are embarrassing enough in public, but it's that sort of social media device," he said via videoconference, chuckling.

However, he said, Australians need to be "very aware" that TikTok and other social media platforms, including US-owned companies, reap enormous amounts of information on users and subscribers.

The difference with TikTok, he said, is "that information can be accessed at a sovereign state level," a reference to Chinese companies' legal obligation to share data with state intelligence services if they want it.

"But I think people should understand -- and there's a sort of buyer-beware process -- there is nothing at this point that would suggest to us that security interests have been compromised."

Citing a national security threat, President Donald Trump on Monday gave TikTok's parent ByteDance six weeks to sell the app to an American company or find it shut down.

Microsoft is in talks with ByteDance, and any deal could include TikTok's Australia business.

But Morrison downplayed the immediate threat.

"There is no reason for us to restrict those applications at this point. We'll obviously kep watching them."

Nevertheless, he stressed that people "need to understand where the extension cord goes back to."

Earlier, China's ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, told the Aspen Security Forum that the US move to force the sale of TikTok violated free market principles.

"There is such a degree of political intervention -- government intervention -- into the market, there is such discrimination against Chinese companies, and these companies are just private companies," he said.

"To accuse China of not giving American companies a level playing field while at the same time they themselves are denying Chinese companies such a level playing field, this is extremely unfair."

Trump call for slice of TikTok deal draws fire
Washington (AFP) Aug 4, 2020 - President Donald Trump on Tuesday defended his demand for the US government to get a piece of the action to let Microsoft or any other company here buy popular China-based social media app TikTok.

Trump's stance was slammed by critics who said it appears unconstitutional and akin to extortion.

"We have all the cards, because without us, you can't come into the United States," Trump said during a White House press briefing.

"If you're a landlord, you have a tenant, the tenant's business needs rent, it needs a lease."

Trump maintained that a large share of any TikTok purchase price should go to the US treasury, and that Microsoft "agreed with me very much."

Microsoft did not immediately return a request for comment.

Trump on Monday said he was prepared to approve a deal selling TikTok assets to Microsoft or another US company after warning of a national security ban, but maintained that he would ask for "a substantial portion" of any transaction to come into the Treasury.

Trump lacks authority for this demand, critics said, adding that if carried out it would be bad for business and international relations.

"Those are the sort of mafia tactics you might see in Russia," said James Lewis, director of technology policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"It's not a good policy practice. I don't think it's constitutional."

Bobby Chesney, a University of Texas law professor specializing in national security and constitutional issues, said Trump's suggestion "is grossly inappropriate and unbecoming, not to mention having no basis in law."

Former federal prosecutor Michael Bromwich said on Twitter that Trump's demands sounded like racketeering, referring to the law known as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations act (RICO).

"This is becoming a more overt RICO enterprise with each passing day," he wrote in response to Trump's comments.

The Wall Street Journal journalists Spencer Jakab and Dan Gallagher wrote in an opinion piece that Microsoft should reject any such overture.

"If the proposal is serious, and deemed legal, it would set a dangerous precedent for the seizure of foreign businesses through regulatory fiat, and open the door for US firms to suffer the same treatment," they wrote.

"If the price includes an unseemly payout to the US Treasury, corporate America has far more to lose than to gain by participating."

Used by as many as a billion people worldwide to make quirky short-form videos on their cellphones, TikTok is the latest front in the ongoing political and trade battles between Washington and Beijing.

The United States maintains that TikTok collects users' personal data that the Chinese government can access and make use of for intelligence and other purposes. TikTok denies its user data goes to the Chinese government.

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TikTok sale uncertain as Trump ban looms: reports
San Francisco (AFP) Aug 2, 2020
Negotiations for Microsoft to buy the US operations of Chinese-owned TikTok are on hold after President Donald Trump threatened to bar the social media app and came out against the sale, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday. Trump has pledged to get tough on the massively popular video-sharing app, which US officials have said could be a tool for Chinese intelligence - a claim the firm, owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance, has repeatedly denied. While there has been no sign yet of th ... read more