TikTok Bans Russian State Media From its App

TikTok has followed Meta in removing several Russian state media outlets from its platform, due to the discovery that these profiles had been engaged in activity seeking to influence the U.S. election.

Earlier in the month, Meta announced that it had banned RT, Rossiya Segodnya and other Russian state media networks from its platforms, after the discovery of a scheme that had been using right-wing commentators in the U.S. to amplify political division.

The aim of the program was to influence U.S. voters by strategically pushing them towards viewpoints beneficial to Russia, and the discovery of the network led to prompt action from Meta in addressing coordinated influence activity in its app.

And now, TikTok has followed suit, as part of its expanded U.S. election integrity measures.

As per TikTok:

“Over the last week, our work to protect TikTok during the U.S. elections has included removing accounts associated with Rossiya Segodnya and TV-Novosti for engaging in covert influence operations on TikTok which violates our Community Guidelines.”

TikTok says that these accounts had already been restricted in the EU and U.K. while their content was also ineligible for the “For You” feed under its State-Affiliated Media policy. But now, it’s moved to cut them off entirely, in the wake of the latest evidence of Russian groups seeking to sway U.S. voters.

The revelations underline the threat that such programs still pose, which first came into focus back in 2016, when Russian operatives were found to be using social media to nudge U.S. voters.

That’s a big reason why Meta has since moved away from political content entirely, because the scrutiny and pressure that it brought on the company, and management, made it more trouble than it was worth.

The latest revelations show that such operations are still in effect, and it’s good to see TikTok also taking definitive action in stamping out artificial influence efforts in its app.

TikTok also published its latest covert influence operation report this week, which shows that it removed 5 networks, and 7,792 accounts, in August alone that have been linked to suspected manipulation activity.

It’s an important consideration, which highlights the ways in which foreign groups are still pushing to sway voters in other regions to drive beneficial outcomes.