In China, the U.S. and lands in between, social media remain popular places for people to consume information, and they’re often a headache for platforms dealing with disinformation and fake news.
The short-video application Douyin, the Chinese version of parent company ByteDance’s TikTok, this week announced a new verification mechanism for suspected fake content.
In a statement this week, Douyin said it would target “staged videos” intended to mislead audiences and require creators to label such content as fictional or dramatized.
Douyin cited a case of a plastic surgeon in China’s Anhui province who staged a video to appear he saved a patient through emergency surgery, attracting a lot of attention.
TikTok, Douyin’s sister app outside China, says it, too, has stepped up efforts to moderate and control content that aims to deliberately mislead for political reasons and includes a somewhat surprising target: state media.
TikTok, despite being under a Chinese parent company, introduced measures announced on its U.S. website on May 23 that will restrict state media, including from China, from using the platform to spread disinformation and misinformation outside their own countries.
“These updates advance our commitment to building a safe and secure platform that remains free from outside manipulation and influence,” the company said in a statement.
TikTok says that in the first four months of 2024, it disrupted 15 influence operations and removed 3,001 associated accounts, “most of which involved attempts to influence political speech, including around elections.”
The TikTok statement cited efforts made on its platform to covertly influence an election in Indonesia and politics in Britain.
“Now we’re expanding our state-affiliated media policies to further address state-affiliated media accounts that attempt to reach communities outside their home country on current global events and affairs. When we identify these accounts, they will become ineligible for recommendation, which means their content won’t appear in the For You feed,” it said.
TikTok said state media also would not be allowed to advertise outside their countries.
It was not immediately clear if TikTok’s restrictions would apply to China’s state media in Taiwan. Beijing considers the self-governing island a breakaway province that must one day reunite with the mainland, by force if necessary.
Taiwan, U.S. officials and analysts say Beijing, through harassment and intimidation, attempted to influence Taiwan’s elections in January, which saw the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party’s candidate win an unprecedented third presidential term in a row.
While the TikTok announcement on its U.S. website didn’t specifically mention the U.S. presidential election, it highlighted “countering influence operations during a historic election year.” It says it removed in February 16 accounts from China with more than 110,000 followers that were promoting Chinese policies and culture in the U.S.
“We assess this network operated from China and targeted a U.S. audience,” it said. “The individuals behind this network created inauthentic accounts in order to artificially amplify positive narratives of China, including support for the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) policy decisions and strategic objectives, as well as general promotion of Chinese culture. This network utilized accounts impersonating high-profile U.S. creators and celebrities in an attempt to build an audience.”
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines testified before Congress on March 12 that the United States “cannot rule out” that China could use TikTok to influence the 2024 U.S. presidential election. Mike Gallagher, the former chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Special Committee on China, warned that TikTok has a “huge opportunity” to interfere with the 2024 U.S. election.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s 2024 Annual Threat Assessment Report states that China may attempt to influence the 2024 U.S. election to some extent “because of its desire to sideline critics of China and magnify U.S. societal divisions.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN in April that the U.S. has seen evidence of China’s attempts to influence and arguably interfere with the upcoming election.
Beijing repeatedly has denied interfering in foreign elections, including in the U.S. Lin Jian, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, repeated that in response to a question about Blinken’s allegation at a regular briefing on April 29.
“Non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs is a basic principle for China’s diplomacy. The U.S. presidential election is the U.S.’s internal affair. We have never had any interest and will not interfere in any way in the election,” he said, and then accused Blinken of making the allegation for political purposes.
Move called insufficient
Critics say this week’s TikTok announcement that it aims to combat election interference and disinformation is too little, too late.
“I don’t think the measures will be successful as long as TikTok’s parent, ByteDance, is de facto controlled by the Chinese government. I think TikTok’s parent could divest from control by the CCP [Chinese Communist Party],” Joshua Kurlantzick told VOA. He is a senior fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.
Nathan Leamer, CEO of Fixed Gear Strategies and former policy adviser to Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, told VOA that TikTok’s new moves are symbolic. “I have no reason to believe these measures will do anything but promote the CCP’s interests,” he said.
“TikTok could be the gateway for a foreign adversary to have unprecedented sensitive data,” Leamer said, adding that unless ByteDance divests TikTok, there is no way to protect the integrity of the platform.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t respond to VOA’s request for comment.
TikTok’s stated crackdown on state media comes after it filed a lawsuit May 7 against the U.S. government to try to prevent its forced sale of U.S. assets.
U.S. President Joe Biden in April signed a bill requiring ByteDance to sell TikTok in the U.S. to retain access to the American market, due to concerns the company could share the private data of U.S. citizens with Chinese authorities.
If ByteDance refuses to divest TikTok in the U.S. by January 19, 2025, it would be banned, according to the law.
TikTok says the private data of its users is safe and secure, yet analysts note that Chinese law requires the company to cooperate with Chinese authorities, and that the data of users is vulnerable.
As of January 2024, TikTok had an estimated 148.9 million U.S. users, making it the largest market for the Chinese application. TikTok’s CEO testified to Congress in March 2023 that ByteDance retains in the PRC at least seven years’ worth of U.S. TikTok users’ data.
Adrianna Zhang contributed to this report.
