The Australian government has been urged to act quickly and create a body tasked with tackling foreign interference promulgated on social media ahead of the nation’s 2022 federal election. Large-scale coordinated disinformation campaigns led by the Russian government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) have pervaded platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Tiktok, and YouTube, many of whom have made efforts to cull swathes of illegitimate accounts. But other forms of interference, such as social media influencers paid by Beijing to create content supporting the communist regime, have gone unchecked. The recommendation forms one of several by a senate committee investigating the risks posed by social media-led foreign interference on Australia’s democracy. The committee also recommended the establishment of a clear pathway for social media platforms to report suspected foreign interference after video-sharing giant TikTok revealed there was currently no clear system to do so. “Given the impending federal election, it …