Ukraine war: China's TikTok “more dangerous” in terms of spreading Russian disinformation than the Russia-founded messaging app Telegram, Ukrainian expert says
Ukraine war: China's TikTok “more dangerous” in terms of spreading Russian disinformation than the Russia-founded messaging app Telegram, Ukrainian expert says
“We’ve already figured Telegram out — we understand its structure and how it operates,” a Ukrainian official said. “TikTok, however, has become a significant concern for us.”
Chinese social media giant TikTok is “more dangerous” to Ukraine in terms of spreading Russian propaganda and disinformation than the Russia-founded messaging app Telegram, according to Alina Aleksieeva, the deputy head of Ukraine’s State Center for Countering Disinformation (CPD).
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“We often perceive Telegram as the primary culprit, given its abundance of anonymous Russian channels and the impersonation of Ukrainian ones,” said Svitlana Slipchenko, deputy executive director of the data analytics platform Vox Ukraine.
“But the problem extends beyond Telegram — fake news is widespread on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Threads,” she added. “The danger is focusing too narrowly on one platform while Russian propaganda continues to thrive across the entire digital landscape.”
Earlier this year, the CPD published a list of over 80 TikTok accounts used for Russian disinformation. The list includes official accounts of Russian state media, such as TASS, Sputnik, and RIA Novosti.
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Ukraine has previously considered banning TikTok. The app’s future in the U.S. is uncertain due to concerns that ByteDance may have ties to the Chinese government. U.S. authorities have also accused the app of spreading harmful content and misinformation and posing privacy risks.
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Ukraine has been paying close attention to foreign social media apps due to the risks they pose to its users amid the ongoing war. Earlier in September, Ukraine banned Telegram on official devices used by state and security officials, military personnel, and employees of critical infrastructure facilities.
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China is constantly trying to meddle with – and apply political pressure to – other countries. You'd have to be silly to think they do nothing untoward with TikTok.
This is a country that routinely disappears people for being critical of the government. A country that is committing a genocide as we speak. A country that utilises slave labour from a minority group. A country that has "police" cells all over Europe and beyond that polices Chinese citizens abroad.
How spineless we are towards China really disappoints me.
In the past, we were naive enough to believe that by being friendly to dictatorships like Russia and China, we would spread western values and convert them. It doesn't work. We need to wean ourselves off of China. They aren't going to suddenly become a friendly country.
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Addition:
TikTok Has Pushed Chinese Propaganda Ads To Millions Across Europe -- ( July 2024, updated September 2024)
According to TikTok's newly public advertising library, ads from China’s largest state media outlets touting everything from China Covid lockdowns to tourism in the troubled Xinjiang region have been broadcast to millions of the platform's European users.
TikTok Ads Paid for by Chinese Media Target European Users -- (August 2023)
Chinese media sponsored over a thousand ads on TikTok targeting European audiences. Additionally, accounts that carefully obscure their connections to China may pose further risks in coordinated information manipulation campaigns.
This are just two examples, there is much more across the web.
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Yeah, and how is facebook ?