Why governments are banning a social media app from phones

New Zealand joins countries around the world by banning TikTok from government issued devices as the US threatens an outright ban on the popular social media app

Mōrena and welcome to The Bulletin for Thursday, March 23, by Anna Rawhiti-Connell. Presented in partnership with Z Energy.

In today’s edition: inside the landmark battle to have a former All Black’s neurodegenerative disease recognised by ACC; National will launch part of its education policy today; counter-protests planned against anti-trans campaigner; but first, the geo-political battleground in our pockets

Australia and New Zealand move to ban TikTok on government phones

It’s a strange contrast in some ways. Australia just signed a deal that may cost them up to $368b for nuclear-powered submarines as part of the Aukus alliance, while also deeming the social media app TikTok to be too dangerous to be on the phones of government politicians and officials. After much speculation, the Sydney Morning Herald reports that the Albanese government will announce a ban on the use of TikTok on government-provided devices this week. An email from Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero, leaked last week, has informed New Zealand MPs that similar moves would be made here. 

China’s response to our ban has “echoes of” the response to the Huawei ban

BusinessDesk’s Ben Moore reports (paywalled) that while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade doesn’t expect the ban to impact our trading relationship with China, China has taken note of the ban, based on a response by a spokesperson for China's Foreign Ministry. Moore writes that it had echoes of the “it’s not fair” stance Huawei proponents took when it was the subject of bans last decade. In a great overview of the delicate balancing act foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta will be undertaking in China at the moment that covers a range of issues, Newsroom’s Sam Sachdeva reminds us that bilateral relations with China were considered to be at “their lowest ebb” when Chinese-owned Huawei was shut out of our country’s 5G network.

Why TikTok?

TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. Last year, it temporarily dethroned Google as the most visited website in the world. It is touted as the most downloaded app of 2022. To the average user, it’s a place to create and watch short videos. The United States has been leading the charge on banning TikTok, with the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission warning that ByteDance could share TikTok user data with the Chinese government. This is a good explainer from The Guardian but concerns are driven by a law implemented in China in 2017 that requires companies to give the government any personal data relevant to the country’s national security. There’s no evidence TikTok has turned over such data, but like all social media apps, TikTok collects a vast amount of user data. 

US threatening outright ban, urging Australia to so the same

The US is now threatening an outright ban on TikTok unless the social media company’s Chinese owners divest their stakes in it. It’s not unprecedented. Axios has a breakdown of the full or partial bans on TikTok currently in place across the globe. A top US technology regulator is now urging Australia to completely ban TikTok, describing the ban on it being on government phones as the “lowest of the low-hanging fruit”. While New Zealand hasn’t yet been asked to consider an outright ban by the US, prime minister Chris Hipkins and New Zealand officials had to hose down talk of a new “cutting edge technology” initiative with the US on Tuesday, after a visiting senior White House official talked it up. Rae Hodge of Salon writes that banning TikTok outright in the US is pointless political theatre. If nothing else, TikTok bans, partial or outright, are a clear sign that geo-political battlegrounds have extended beyond what lies beneath the water and into what we’ve got in our pockets.

Watch: One woman’s battle to get back on the board

Back on the Board is a brand new one-off documentary for The Spinoff taking audiences inside the life of skateboarder Amber Clyde. A lifelong advocate for women in the sport, Clyde founded Girls Skate NZ after being bullied as the only girl in the skate park in Birkenhead. Now a single mother of two who is juggling raising her young children with a packed teaching schedule, Clyde struggles to find time for herself to rebuild her own confidence in the sport. In this intimate observational documentary, Clyde explores the realities of being both a solo mother and a skater, and the mental and physical challenges that come with getting back on the board. 

Back on the Board is made with the support of NZ On Air. 

Inside the years-long fight to have a former All Black’s CTE recognised by ACC

This morning we bring you an exclusive on The Spinoff from Dylan Cleaver. Wellington rugby stalwart, one-game All Black and former New Zealand First MP Tutekawa Wyllie has had his probable chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) condition recognised and compensated for by the ACC after a five-year campaign. CTE is a brain condition linked to repeated head injuries and blows to the head. It can only be definitively diagnosed post-mortem and has been discovered in the brains of hundreds of former NFL, football, rugby and league players. ACC says there have been “less than four” such cases in New Zealand. The Wyllies are the first to go public with their story Wyllie’s wife Margaret is doing so “because she fears that many more in her husband’s position have neither the wherewithal, the support or the patience to keep climbing over the kind of brick walls that were put in front of them.” It’s an extraordinary story that Cleaver tells with compassion and expertise, documenting a victory against the system and to use Cleaver’s own words, an account of “the vivid diminution of a high-achieving person.” 

The National party will launch part of education policy today

Teased yesterday, Christopher Luxon will launch part one of the National party’s education policy today. The policy is titled “Teaching the Basics Brilliantly” and is focused on primary schools’ teaching of numeracy, literacy and science. The party has said it will rewrite the curriculum if elected. Luxon wants clearer standards for each year level with clearer definition of what knowledge must be taught each year, rather than over three-year bands. While former teacher and Education Hub founder Nina Hood is pretty concerned about where New Zealand is at academically, she was not convinced by National’s approach. Hood told RNZ’s Checkpoint last night that far too many New Zealand children were being let down by the education system but that learning was not linear and she worries about “the idea of being really prescriptive at an individual year basis."

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Counter-protests to meet anti-trans activist when she speaks in New Zealand

Following yesterday’s decision by Immigration NZ to allow anti-trans campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull into the country, counter-protests have been organised at her speaking events. Hundreds of protesters drowned out the relatively small number of people who turned out in support of Keen-Minshull in Hobart on Tuesday. Both Kiritapu Allan and Grant Robertson made firm statements against Keen-Minshull’s rhetoric on Instagram last night.  I recommend listening to last night’s episode of RNZ's Mediawatch. Hayden Donnell discusses how the media can handle this issue so it doesn’t cause further harm and hurt. Donnell spotlights a good interview on TodayFM with Duncan Garner and the parent of a transgender teenager. As Donnell said, for the media, and perhaps all of us, it’s worht remembering there are human beings on the receiving end of the things we write and say. In this case it’s often particularly vulnerable human beings. For some additional reading, I frequently return to this Judith Butler interview on feminism, trans rights and living in “anti-intellectual times”.

Click and collect

• The latest report from Guyon Espiner’s investigation into lobbying in New Zealand reveals how lobbyists gain access to senior ministers and get action on legislation for clients

• Related: Max Rashbrooke with a three-point plan to clean up lobbying

• Housing market sees biggest sales slump in 40 years

• A follow up on yesterday’s Bulletin lead with experts saying that cutting methane emissions would be a quick win

• Cyclone clean-up reunites man with a wallet he lost 25 years ago

Got some feedback about The Bulletin, or anything in the news? Get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz.

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Right now on The Spinoff

Toby Manhire asks whether results in three recent Labour candidate selection contests amount to a thumbing of noses at head office or are a sign of party strength. Alex Casey speaks to a psychologist about why she was too chicken to wear a mask on the plane. Sela Jane Hopgood talks to the first-time producer of Red, White & Brass about his feel-good film’s journey to the screen. Julia de Bres writes that sports can be hugely beneficial for children but there are still many barriers for trans kids wanting to play.

Sporting snippets

• The extraordinary lengths New Zealand Olympian Zane Robertson took to deceive anti-doping authorities

• A perfect over in cricket is almost unheard of but a high schooler in Palmerston North has achieved the feat

• Southern Steel head coach Reinga Bloxham has been appointed as a coach for the Wales national netball team