TikTok’s future is in peril as the US threatens to implement a nationwide ban, but Australia has “no plans” to follow its ally’s footsteps despite national security concerns.

The short-form video app, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is one of the fastest growing platforms in the world with more than 170 million users in the US and 8.5 million Australian users.

But on Wednesday US House of Representatives passed a bill that would give ByteDance six months to divest from the app and sell to a company that is not based in China.

Failing to do this, Apple’s App Store and Google Play store would be barred from hosting TikTok, effectively banning its use across the US.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Thursday the Australian government was not expected to emulate the US.

“We’ll take advice but we have no plans,” he told WSFM Sydney.

“You’ve always got to have national security concerns, front and centre, but you also need to acknowledge that for a whole lot of people, this provides a way of them communicating.”

In Australia, TikTok is only banned on government devices, which prevents public servants from downloading the app on their work-issued phones.

US politicians claim the app poses a security risk as Americans’ data could be shared with the Chinese government due to ByteDance’s affiliations with the country.

But TikTok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew has repeatedly told Congress US data is held in Singapore, not China.

TikTok’s fate now rests in the hands of US senators, who will review the legislation.

Shadow home affairs spokesman James Paterson urged the government to implement similar reforms or else put Australia at risk.

“What this legislation does is it … breaks the relationship between the Chinese Communist Party and what has become the most dominant source of news and information in the world for young people,” he told Sky News.

He claims the Chinese government are given “unregulated access” to Australian devices and uses that to abuse citizens’ data and influence their world views.

“That’s not a national security threat we should tolerate at any time, but particularly at a time of heightened strategic competition,” Senator Paterson said.

But Mr Albanese said the government would need to carefully consider advice before taking action.

“You need to have an argument fought rather than just automatically ban things,” he said on ABC radio.

“TikTok isn’t compulsory, by the way.”

– AAP