TikTok has lashed out at the Australian 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 short-form video platform wrote with contempt about the design of looming regulation that will ban those age below 16 from most social media. The government last year 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¡¯s "illogical, anti-competitive and short sighted.¡± Government assessments of YouTube¡¯s educative value don¡¯t survive "even the most cursory of closer examinations,¡± TikTok said.
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