Australia and New Zealand Issued More Social Media Takedown Requests Than Iraq

Social media platform TikTok received more requests to remove material from Australia and New Zealand than it did from Iraq, an analysis of the company’s published data demonstrates.

In the six months from January to June 2023, the latest for which data is available, Australia sent 470 requests and New Zealand 215. In the same period, Iraq sent five. Only Russia and Bangladesh requested more items be censored, with 792 and 474 notices issued respectively.

However, on a per capita basis, Australia and New Zealand still lead with 5.35 and 4.06 notices per 100,000 population, respectively.

The next highest was Jordan, which last year moved to criminalise some online speech, but even that kingdom filed only 64 requests, with a per capita rate of 0.56.

Other countries with reputations for tightly controlling their citizens, including their rights to free speech—such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Saudi Arabia—are well down the ranking.

The United States is at the bottom of the table in per capita terms, with 11 notices issued, whereas on the number issued it is Egypt with two, and Romania and South Africa with one each.

Australia’s Free Speech Union—which is running a petition to abolish the eSafety Commissioner’s office—acknowledges that countries that send fewer requests may do so because their citizens do not regularly use TikTok, or that they block content on it directly at the Internet Service Provider level. However, the Union is concerned that Australia may adopt a similar regime.

“It is certainly something the eSafety Commissioner has made motions about,” said Reuben Kirkham, the Union’s Co-Director.

“If this happens, then we would be in poor company, at least for a democratic society. This is one of the many reasons that we consider the eSafety regime should be abolished.”