Canberra, Australia - December 1, 2025 - Plans by TikTok to establish major data center operations in Australia have stalled after the company’s proposals failed to secure timely clearance from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB), Australian reporting shows, underscoring Canberra’s cautious approach to foreign ownership of critical digital infrastructure.
Multiple Australian outlets report that TikTok’s local data center ambitions have been held up for more than a year as FIRB and other government bodies examined potential national security risks associated with a China-linked social media platform controlling substantial local hosting capacity. The delay has left planned site development and investment plans in limbo, even as the platform continues to expand user services and infrastructure partnerships in other markets.
The suspension of approvals is rooted in a broader shift in Australia’s regulatory posture that treats certain digital-infrastructure projects as strategically sensitive. Canberra has tightened processes governing foreign investment in recent years and has shown heightened vigilance toward proposals with possible data sovereignty or security implications, a trend that has affected telecoms, cloud and edge projects, as well as social-platform infrastructure. Observers say the TikTok case fits into that larger pattern of closer scrutiny.
Industry sources and local policymakers have debated the trade-offs between attracting large-scale data center investment and managing perceived security exposure. Supporters of local hosting argue that onshore data processing can improve privacy controls and economic benefits, while skeptics note that ownership and governance arrangements remain the key control points for risk management. The FIRB process, designed to weigh such considerations, has repeatedly emerged as a decisive gatekeeper in recent bids for critical digital assets.
TikTok has previously sought to reassure regulators in other jurisdictions by outlining measures such as local data-residency controls and independent auditing, but the Australian pause suggests those assurances have not yet resolved government concerns here.
The hold-up also comes as Canberra advances other digital policy initiatives, including youth social media regulation and platform accountability laws, which together have placed TikTok under heightened political and regulatory attention.
For now, developers and local partners linked to the proposed projects are awaiting formal FIRB outcomes before proceeding with land acquisition, grid connections and contractor mobilization. Market participants say the episode highlights how national security considerations can materially reshape the timetable and attractiveness of large cloud and data center investments in strategically sensitive sectors.
