Final ByteDance Exec Tian Zhao Departs TikTok Australia Board

Final ByteDance Exec Tian Zhao Departs TikTok Australia Board

TikTok’s Australia board is now void of ByteDance executives, as the last woman standing, Tian Zhao (pictured) has resigned.  

Documents from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission demonstrate that Zhao resigned from the board in mid-July. 

Following increasing scrutiny from the Australian government, TikTok had been trying to distance itself from its Chinese parent company. 

Zhao had been on the TikTok Australia board since 2019. Brent Thomas, TikTok’s director of public policy Australia, will be replacing Zhao.

“Brent Thomas has been a valued member of the TikTok team since joining the company in June 2020. He has previously held board positions with AIDS Trust of Australia and NSW PCYC,” said a TikTok spokeswoman.

This departure comes at a time when there has been increased concern over the security risk TikTok might pose if the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) were to access the data of 1 billion active TikTok users. 

Governments across the world have been living in fear that ByteDance would be required to provide this data to Beijing’s authoritarian government under a 2017 law that pressures companies to hand over personal data related to China’s national security.

Having recently banned TikTok on government devices, a stricter policy is expected in the coming months by the Australian government. 

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