After Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were banned, TikTok is the only remaining global social media platform still available in Russia. According to Datareportal, it attracted nearly 55 million users in Russia in February 2022; and its audience is likely to grow even more, should it avoid being banned too.
What can Russians users see on this most influential Chinese-owned platform? Tracking Exposed, a European non-profit organization aiming to defend digital rights through algorithmic investigations, has investigated the matter. Its report published last week shows the following:
- On March 7, TikTok made all the content posted by non-Russian channels unavailable to Russian users. This unannounced restriction removes an estimated 95% of the content previously available to Russian TikTok users.
- Content restriction is happening at the application layer rather than the transport layer, which requires the direct involvement of TikTok. It is the first time a global social media platform has restricted access to content at this scale.
- A network of coordinated accounts is using a loophole to post new content promoting Russian pro-war propaganda in Russia, despite the current ban on new content uploads.
The authors insist that TikTok “is not being transparent about its policy actions in Russia,” and call on TikTok to “clarify its content policy in Russia and give data access for public scrutiny.”
Report: How the war in Ukraine is affecting the content that TikTok users see in RussiaRead More
