Influence Networks in Russia Misled European Users, TikTok Says

As a newer platform, TikTok is “in a unique position to innovate in the search for solutions to these longstanding industry challenges,” Caroline Greer, Tiktok’s director of public policy and government relations, said in a blog post on Thursday.

The company did not say whether the accounts had ties to the Russian government.

TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, has struggled with many of the same conspiracy theories, false narratives, manipulated media and foreign disinformation campaigns as its social media peers.

In its report, covering mid-June through mid-December 2022, TikTok said it took down more than 36,500 videos, with 183.4 million views, across Europe because they violated TikTok’s harmful misinformation policy.

The company removed nearly 865,000 fake accounts, with more than 18 million followers between them (including 2.3 million in Spain and 2.2 million in France). There were nearly 500 accounts taken down in Poland alone under TikTok’s policy banning impersonation.

Early in the fighting in Ukraine last year, the company said, it noticed a sharp rise in attempts to post ads related to political and combat content, even though TikTok does not allow such advertising.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/business/media/tiktok-misinformation-russia-ukraine.html