Interview
Fight against fake news: “There is a desire on TikTok to present itself as a reliable social network”
While the Chinese social network has said it wants to strengthen its fight against fake news in the run-up to the European elections next June, interview with Maxime Arquillière and Coline Chavane, two analysts within the French cybersecurity solutions company Sekoia.io.
TikTok announces that it wants to strengthen its fight against fake news in Europe. © Thomas Trutschel / Photothek via Getty Images
By: Anne Verdaguer Follow
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TikTok
has announced that it wants to strengthen its fight against fake news and clandestine influence operations in the run-up to the European Parliament elections next June. The Chinese social network will create a local language application in the 27 countries of the European Union and says it is collaborating with information verifiers. Other internet giants such as Meta, Microsoft, Google and Open IA have also declared that they want to protect themselves against possible influence campaigns orchestrated by great powers during a very busy electoral year across the country. world.
RFI: What do you think of this initiative by TikTok to try to counter influence campaigns and false information during the next European elections
?
Maxime Arquillière:
Any initiative which takes note of the issues of influence and information on social networks and which attempts to hinder the phenomenon is an initiative which is good to take, especially since TikTok is a social network which mainly affects young generations who get less and less information from traditional media. But if I can add a caveat, there is also a desire on TikTok to present itself as a reliable social network, unlike Twitter which, since the setbacks of Elon Musk, has fallen a bit into
misinformation
. Or, in any case, remove all the barriers that were put in place by the old team on issues of disinformation.
And perhaps the other point which touches on this opportunism is the fact that the company is trying to redeem its image, because we must remember that it is a social network which is managed by a Chinese company, Bytedance which has alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party. So, we can analyze this initiative from these two angles.
Coline Chavane:
Since the start of the war in Ukraine, we have seen that TikTok has implemented several measures, in particular to ensure the authenticity of the content that was on the platform. We have, for example, a label that has been added for videos produced by state-funded media. However,
during the mid-term elections
in the United States in November 2022, there was an exposed Chinese influence campaign. And so this shows how, despite these barriers and these safeguards, moderation is quite weak for the moment on this type of media. Especially since there are already influence campaigns that target audiences using local languages or geolocation to push this or that type of content.
2024 is a rich year from an electoral point of view around the world. Can we say that the risks of opinion manipulation have never been so significant? And which are the most vulnerable countries?
Maxime Arquillière:
I would clearly take the example of the American elections. Today, we really have a Republican electoral base which is extremely permeable to a certain type of false information,
notably deep fakes
, on the opposite camp, whether
on President Joe Biden or on the measures that he is wearing
. And there is more and more distrust towards the media, let's say traditional, including American, which means that today, any information that is shared on social networks will be at the same level as information carried by a major media such as
the New York Times
or
Washington Post
. And that is something that certain states like Russia or China understand well and so they try to create this permanent doubt in the minds of voters.
Coline Chavane:
These are disinformation campaigns which are increasingly multi-platform, and which use a very large number of relays, whether social networks, or fake news sites, but also the mobilization of local journalists. We have a campaign which was recently updated in Latin America by the American secret services and which shows how Russia, through private relays, is in contact and forms groups with local journalists who are relays of influence in these areas to push the narratives. We must also understand that technologies, the growing use of social networks and also all the data that comes from these platforms to measure the impact of this or that content on an audience make it possible to refine and make these campaigns more effective. , more sophisticated in the means they use and in their capacity to reach a very large audience.
Also listen to the inside story - Elections 2024, prepare to avoid the pitfalls of generative AI
How do States protect themselves from this manipulation of their opinions and the dissemination of false information?
Coline Chavane
:
Last year, the United States banned the use of TikTok to a certain extent, the European Union did the same by banning its use by European officials. With
the Digital Service Act (DSA)
, a law promulgated in 2023, we see that European countries want to legislate against this type of behavior and that there is a political will to restrict the use of this type of platform.
Maxime Arquillière:
The European elections will be a very strong challenge in terms of the fight against disinformation. It may, in fact, be that the European right, which is on the rise, wishes to nourish this type of content, to have a stronger influence today within the European Union, and tries to weaken a position policy that could be exploited, for example, by countries like Russia, Belarus or China.
Also read “On TikTok, the user gives the reins to the algorithm”
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