TIKTOK PROPAGANDA

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TikTok since its emersion to the digital scene has been one of the fastest growing social media platforms created and is ranked the 6th most used digital program worldwide (Cyca, 2022). Boasting over 1.39 billion users (Ruby, 2022), its favoured for the capacity of creators to create and post short videos to an audience. However, due to its ease of use and accessibility, there have been concerns regarding the development and distribution of propaganda on its site. This has resulted in users being disturbed with the content they are viewing and questions the strength of the security measures of the app itself.  These issues have mainly risen from countries with authoritarian governments such as China and Russia.

 

TikTok as a platform has an extremely large audience and therefore, it is considerably easy for the fast spread of information and for videos to go ‘viral.’ As a result, the dense saturation of propaganda on viewers screens is easily attainable for endeavouring individuals and groups. In addition to this, the largest sector of TikTok users are children and minors, therefore, making them extremely vulnerable and susceptible to sensitive information; thus, making propaganda a large concern of the site. The type of propaganda present on the app varies largely from conspiracy theories to government ideologies and is most effective when presented to younger audiences. Examples of TikTok propaganda include Anti-vaccine misinformation, Pro-Chinese propaganda, and conspiracy theories. During the peak of the Covid 19 pandemic, the interest in vaccines was extremely high due to the government push for them, regarding health concerns. As a result, there was also an outpour of dis-support from part of the community, most of whom projected their concerns and apprehension online. This led to a large spread of misinformation, and it was further discovered in 2021, that youtubers were offered money by Russian linked PR companies to post anti-vaccine links on their TikTok accounts. Further to this, a religious cult leader had been taking to their TikTok platform to advocate to people the dangers of the coronavirus vaccine, in a bid to stop people from receiving the jab. Another example is the spread of conspiracy theories on the social platform. These come in many forms and examples including, the vaccine control theory and QAnon. These have become increasing popular and reached a significant audience as popular accounts were supporting these ideas by promoting them through major hashtags. Since the creation of these and others, TikTok has attempted to remove these accounts, however, many evade deletion and punishment.  

 

Recently, China has come under fire for requesting permission from the platforms executives to be able to create and maintain a hidden propaganda account, targeting Western audiences. This attempt was launched by a Chinese governing body who are responsible for public relations and was quickly denied by the TikTok administration board. The awareness of this endeavour to the public is said to highlight the growing internal tensions within the app, over its suspected security concerns. According to Elizabeth Kanter, TikTok’s head of government relations, a colleague of hers flagged, a “Chinese government entity that’s interested in joining TikTok but would not want to be openly seen as a government account as the main purpose is for promoting content that showcase the best side of China (some sort of propaganda)” (Solon, 2022). The social media’s site executives knocked back the request, claiming it was a matter of ‘sensitive nature.’ Additionally, this incident further incited the investigation and discussion of other sensitive issues pertaining to the digital platform. A spokeswoman for TikTok explained their opposition of the creation of such an account, as they believe it would violate their clearly defined community guidelines. This is because the platform has strict rules prohibiting, “coordinated inauthentic behaviour,” in which users attempt to conceal their true identities on their accounts in order to exert influence or persuade general public consensus. This is not the first time that the Chinese government has attempted to gain control of the platform, as it has been known to exert its influence over TikTok’s owner, ByteDanc.Inc. This was a particularly large point of tension in 2020, when the Trump government accused TikTok of being a ‘mouthpiece’ for the communist party as part of a push to shut down the app in the United States if they wouldn’t sell the platform to an American owner (Solon, 2022).

 

As a result, propaganda is an increasing issue of social media platform TikTok, due to its fast-spreading nature and the impressionable audience, on the digital app. Therefore, we must be aware and mindful of this when sharing and consuming content; leading us to ultimately question the overall security of these apps in protecting its users.

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References

 

Cyca, M., 2022. 23 Important TikTok Stats Marketers Need to Know in 2022. [online] Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard. Available at: <https://blog.hootsuite.com/tiktok-stats/> [Accessed 21 September 2022].

 

Ruby, D., 2022. TikTok User Statistics (2022): How many TikTok Users Are There?. [online] demandsage. Available at: <https://www.demandsage.com/tiktok-user-statistics/#:~:text=As%20per%20the%20company%20data,billion%20are%20monthly%20active%20users.> [Accessed 21 September 2022].

 

Solon, O., 2022. Chinese Government Asked TikTok for Stealth Propaganda Account. [online] Bloomberg.com. Available at: <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-29/chinese-government-asked-tiktok-for-stealth-propaganda-account> [Accessed 21 September 2022].