A committee looking into the use of social media as a means of foreign interference in Australia has found that applications TikTok and WeChat could be the country’s biggest security risks. 

The wide-ranging report has made 17 recommendations, which include introducing new regulations to ensure all platforms operate under transparency requirements or be banned from use across the country.

The report stated that foreign interference was Australia’s principal national security threat and “emerging technologies” such as AI were making the ability to compromise its security even easier.

“Effectively countering foreign interference through social media is, therefore, one of Australia’s most pressing security challenges,” it said, adding that the rise in the use of social media could “corrupt our decision-making, political discourse and societal norms.”

The committee that compiled the report was particularly concerned by the national security threat posed by social media platforms such as TikTok and WeChat.

The parent companies of both apps ByteDance and Tencent, have headquarters in and are run out of China.

“China’s 2017 National Intelligence Law means the Chinese government can require these social media companies to secretly cooperate with Chinese intelligence agencies,” the report said.

“In the case of TikTok, the committee heard that its China-based employees can and have accessed Australian user data, and can manipulate content algorithms — but TikTok cannot tell us how often this data is accessed despite initially suggesting that this information was logged.”

Earlier this year the Australian government banned TikTok on government devices following fears the app’s security was compromised, and the platform could be used for foreign interference by China.