It’s not looking good for social media giant TikTok as the US anticipates a complete ban on the platform kicking in soon.
But that’s not the last of the company’s woes as the app is getting more requests for content removal from different governments around the globe. The news comes as the company just shared its transparency reports on the matter for the year 2024. It examined all the requests made and the actions it implemented.
The app shares the report to provide more transparency on how it handles matters in terms of censorship and control efforts. As seen in the new report shared today, the app keeps getting more requests from other big countries to remove material. What is interesting is how no reports came from China which is raising concerns for many.
Malaysia led the pack with the most removal requests during the year’s first half while Indonesia and Australia rounded up the top three list. Meanwhile, regulators in China did not request the app for content removal despite having strict censorship laws. Even if they did, it was not a part of the report.
The suggestions are evidence that Chinese-based groups are working hard to infiltrate other apps with their own propaganda and TikTok is used for similar reasons. That might make more sense as they hope to get more Western audiences. Now that won’t come as an order or request made by the government.
Instead, it would cover the Covert Influence Operations domain where TikTok identified two Chinese-based influence operations in 2024 with one having as many as 350 accounts. Both campaigns intend to inflate narratives artificially related to the US being corrupt and not safe while promoting China in a positive light.
TikTok continues to see a much lower figure for Chinese influence operations. So far, Meta has shared 11 such campaigns based in China in 2024 alone. So if TikTok is seeing much less then it’s likely that there’s a discrepancy but the report is already out.
Other parts of the report hint at more transparency and a rise in legal enforcement requests in 2024. There are also more efforts made by uncertain sellers for good promotions on the app. So far, TikTok has been busy detecting and deleting many sellers based on violations.
Image: DIW-Aigen
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But that’s not the last of the company’s woes as the app is getting more requests for content removal from different governments around the globe. The news comes as the company just shared its transparency reports on the matter for the year 2024. It examined all the requests made and the actions it implemented.
The app shares the report to provide more transparency on how it handles matters in terms of censorship and control efforts. As seen in the new report shared today, the app keeps getting more requests from other big countries to remove material. What is interesting is how no reports came from China which is raising concerns for many.
Malaysia led the pack with the most removal requests during the year’s first half while Indonesia and Australia rounded up the top three list. Meanwhile, regulators in China did not request the app for content removal despite having strict censorship laws. Even if they did, it was not a part of the report.
The suggestions are evidence that Chinese-based groups are working hard to infiltrate other apps with their own propaganda and TikTok is used for similar reasons. That might make more sense as they hope to get more Western audiences. Now that won’t come as an order or request made by the government.
Instead, it would cover the Covert Influence Operations domain where TikTok identified two Chinese-based influence operations in 2024 with one having as many as 350 accounts. Both campaigns intend to inflate narratives artificially related to the US being corrupt and not safe while promoting China in a positive light.
TikTok continues to see a much lower figure for Chinese influence operations. So far, Meta has shared 11 such campaigns based in China in 2024 alone. So if TikTok is seeing much less then it’s likely that there’s a discrepancy but the report is already out.
Other parts of the report hint at more transparency and a rise in legal enforcement requests in 2024. There are also more efforts made by uncertain sellers for good promotions on the app. So far, TikTok has been busy detecting and deleting many sellers based on violations.
Read next: Threads Rolls Out Innovative Means For Media Sharing That Also Gives Credits To Creators
