United States: TikTok has announced additional restrictions on state-affiliated media in response to worries about foreign meddling in a crucial election year.
State-affiliated media accounts will no longer be suggested in users’ feeds or permitted to advertise to audiences outside of their own nations, the Chinese-owned platform announced on Thursday.
“This is an additional measure to prevent accounts from attempting to reach wider communities on these topics,” TikTok said in a statement.
TikTok announced that it will also reveal more details regarding operations that it had previously deleted and launch a new Transparency Report specifically focused on covert influence operations.
TikTok reported that in the first four months of 2024, it discovered and stopped 3,001 connected accounts and 15 influence activities, including ones pertaining to Indonesia’s presidential election and political discourse in the UK.
“Today’s updates build on our longstanding efforts to foster authenticity on our platform,” TikTok said.
“From enforcing robust policies against harmful misinformation to investing in media literacy for our community through in-app features and educational campaigns, we’ll continue to aggressively protect our platform’s integrity while empowering our community to create and enjoy authentic content and interactions on TikTok,” TikTok added.
The declaration follows the passage of legislation by the US Congress last month requiring TikTok to separate from its Chinese company ByteDance or risk being banned.
TikTok has been under particular attention because of its Chinese ownership, but other social media platforms like Meta and X have also come under fire for hosting foreign influence activities.
Legislators and national security officials from the US and other Western nations have asserted that Beijing may use the platform to monitor users and sway public opinion.
TikTok has consistently denied giving user data to the Chinese government and stated it would reject any request to do so. The company is currently fighting the constitutionality of the law requiring its sale in US courts.
Elections are planned for 2024 in seven of the ten most populous countries in the world, including Pakistan, Indonesia, the US, and India. This year has been dubbed the greatest year for democracy in history.
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