In its attempts to restrict the free flow of info about Putin's invasion of Ukraine, TikTok has—unannounced—blocked an estimated 95% of content previously available to Russians, @trackingexposed found.
If you read our 2020 @ASPI_ICPC paper on TikTok you won't be surprised. 🧵
ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns & operates TikTok is rivalled only by Tencent as the most censorship-ready tech company on the planet.
On March 8th, with the flick of a switch, all non-Russian content was blocked on Russian TikTok.
TikTok's ability to restrict access to content at this scale was evident in 2020.
As we discovered, the use of #путинвор (‘Putin Is A Thief’)—a catchcry of the political opposition—was blocked on the platform.
Similarly, #гей (#Gay), was also blocked.
When we looked under the hood we found that the self-described “progressive and forward-looking company” was categorising LGBTQ+ content on their platform in the same way that #Nazi, #ISIS, #KKK & #cocaine are.
As we argued in our report, TikTok goes beyond complying with the letter of the law to seemingly offer censorship as a service to authoritarian govts.
In Russia, TikTok’s approach has seen them side with Putin's regime against the Russian people’s right to free speech.
Of course, after our report came out, TikTok spox ppl played dumb about the censorship they were enforcing in Russia.
I wonder what they're thinking now?
In addition to this mass restriction of content, @trackingexposed also found that a network of coordinated accounts is using a loophole to post pro-war propaganda in Russia.
Overnight, TikTok has turned into a 24/7 propaganda channel for the Kremlin.
As we argued in 2020 (to some bemusement) TikTok is firmly positioned as a powerful political actor with a global reach.
With other major foreign social media platforms out of the picture, TikTok now has a significant & strategic role to play in Putin's war.
With FB, Twitter & IG blocked, Russian TikTok users are now only able to see Kremlin-approved info.
As TE's head of research points out, this makes it less likely that public opinion in Russia will become critical of the war.
ByteDance is not a neutral actor in this conflict.
Check out @trackingexposed's thread & excellent report here:
And here's our 2020 paper, 'TikTok and WeChat Curating and controlling global information flows': aspi.org.au/report/tiktok-…
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