(New York) TikTok will supervise the campaigns of certain state media which seek to influence opinion in other countries, an initiative justified by the holding of several major elections in the coming months.
The social network intends to “counter influence operations during a historic election year”, according to a press release published Thursday on its site.
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, TikTok had already put in place measures to better identify content posted by state media.
The platform had added a label to accounts “held by entities whose editorial production or decision-making process are subject to the control or influence of a government”.
On Thursday, it announced new provisions targeting media accounts “that try to reach populations outside their country of origin on current issues.”
TikTok does not mention media or countries, but according to the New York Timesthis system concerns in particular Chinese and Russian media.
Asked about this, the subsidiary group of Chinese ByteDance did not respond.
The affected accounts will no longer be able to be recommended, which means that their content will not be able to appear in the “For You” feed, the default home page on which videos are posted based on an algorithm. .
In addition, “in the coming weeks,” these accounts will no longer be allowed to purchase advertising space for distribution outside their country of origin.
To provide more information on “the hidden influence operations that we are disrupting”, TikTok managers will regularly publish a new “transparency” report.
The social network indicated that it had taken measures, during the first four months of the year, against 15 “influence operations” and removed some 3,001 accounts linked to these activities from the platform.
According to the data collected, these campaigns aim to “influence political discourse within the targeted groups, particularly with regard to elections”.
TikTok cites in particular an attempt carried out before the presidential election in Indonesia (held in February) and another intended to “amplify certain discourses on British domestic politics”.