TikTok blasts Australia for excluding YouTube in social media ban

CANBERRA – TikTok has lashed out at Australia’s government for

excluding YouTube from a nationwide digital crackdown

, setting the stage for a public battle over one of the toughest social media laws in the democratic world. 

In a submission to Australia’s department of communications, the Chinese-owned platform wrote with contempt about the design of looming regulation that will ban under-16s from most social media.

The government in 2024 deemed Google-owned YouTube to be a health and education service and exempted it from the new restriction.

TikTok described the carve out as a “sweetheart deal” that is “illogical, anti-competitive and short-sighted”. Government assessments of YouTube’s educative value do not survive “even the most cursory of closer examinations”, TikTok said.

The brash attack reflects TikTok’s exasperation that YouTube has escaped the crackdown and its concern that other jurisdictions around the world may follow suit. Government data show YouTube is overwhelmingly the most popular digital platform among Australian children.

Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, and Snapchat-operator Snap also called for YouTube’s exclusion to be reversed. Meta, in its submission, said YouTube’s special treatment “makes a mockery of the government’s stated intention to protect young people”.

But neither Meta nor Snap was as dismissive of the law as TikTok, which is controlled by China’s ByteDance. 

The rare public criticism suggests closed-door meetings between the social media platforms and government officials delivered little to appease the technology companies.

The new Australian law, which was

passed by Parliament in November

, is due to come into effect by the end of 2025. Platforms will be responsible for enforcing the age limit, with penalties of as much as A$50 million (S$41.9 million) for breaches, although it is not clear what technology will be used to determine a user’s age.

Online gaming and messaging services like Discord and Meta-owned WhatsApp are also excluded.

The ban threatens to deprive social media platforms of a key user group – millions of teenagers coveted by advertisers and a cohort the companies want to lock in early. In a rare moment of solidarity, the aim of TikTok, Meta and Snap now appears to be making sure they do not go down in Australia alone. 

Research released in February by Australia’s digital regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, showed about 80 per cent of children in Australia aged between eight and 12 used at least one platform in 2024. YouTube was the most popular and stands to lose more than any of the other three if included in the crackdown.

Among Australian children aged between eight and 12, 68 per cent watched YouTube in 2024, 31 per cent used TikTok and 19 per cent were on Snapchat, the eSafety Commissioner said. For those aged between 13 and 15, 73 per cent reported using YouTube.

YouTube’s short-form videos are “virtually indistinguishable” from those of TikTok, the Chinese-owned company said. It said that excluding YouTube from Australia’s age-limit rules “would be akin to banning the sale of soft drinks to minors but exempting Coca-Cola”. BLOOMBERG