With TikTok staring down a ban in the U.S., its transparency reports, which examine its various content removals and actions, take on increased relevance, as they could point to Chinese Government manipulation of the app, or potential censorship or control efforts.
And looking at the data in the latest report (released today), TikTok is receiving more requests from governments around the world to remove content.
Guess how many of those came from China?
If you guessed none, you would be correct.
According to TikTok’s latest report, Malaysian authorities submitted the most removal requests in the first half of this year (2,606 total requests), followed by Indonesia (778), and Australian authorities (522).
Chinese regulators didn’t request that TikTok remove anything, at least based on this report.
Of course, the suggestion seems to be that China-based groups, which regularly seek to infiltrate other social media platforms with pro-CCP propaganda and influence efforts, are also using TikTok for the same purpose. Which would make sense, in that if they’re trying to sway Western audiences on other platforms, why not use the one they have more direct access to?
But those wouldn’t necessarily show up as government requests or issues. Though they would show up in the “Covert Influence Operations” segment. In that element of the report, TikTok has identified two China-based influence operations this year, one operating a network of 350 accounts, the other with 16 profiles.
Both of these campaigns intended to “artificially amplify narratives that the U.S. is corrupt and unsafe” and “amplify positive narratives of China.”
Though it is noteworthy that TikTok is seeing (or detecting) significantly fewer China-based influence operations, with Meta recently reporting that it uncovered 11 covert influence campaigns operating out of China throughout this year.
TikTok is seemingly seeing a lot less, which seems unlikely, given its origins. But that’s what the reported data says.
TikTok’s full transparency report also shows an increase in legal enforcement requests this year:
And more efforts by questionable sellers to market goods in the app:
IPR is “intellectual property rights”, and TikTok has been detecting and removing a lot more sellers based on such violations.
Also, more fake engagement:
But the big focus for TikTok right now is its origins, and the influence, or not, of the CCP over its operations. And while TikTok has reported that it is detecting and removing China-based influence efforts, it does seem odd that it’s had no removal request from the Chinese government, and that it’s seeing fewer pushes than other apps.
Maybe Meta’s detection is just better, but I’m not sure that this report will do much to appease concerns about the app.
You can read TikTok’s full transparency Reports overview here.
