There’s a lot of talk at the moment about the role social media disinformation may play in upcoming elections in the U.S. and Europe, but it’s also a problem in countries where it’s attracted less attention—from the media, and arguably from the companies whose platforms play host to the disinformation itself.
The Mozilla Foundation is best known for steering the open-source Mozilla project, which makes the Firefox browser and other apps, but last month it set up a research division called Open Source Research & Investigations. The division’s first task is to investigate the influence of online platforms on elections in the Global South. And although it’s also looking at YouTube, TikTok is its first big focus.
“The primary experience on the internet right now for many people is being influenced by TikTok in one way or another,” OSRI senior researcher Odanga Madung told me last week. “A huge chunk of the video people are watching now is coming from TikTok. Even if they’re not watching it on the platform, they’re watching it on WhatsApp or Instagram Stories.” Between that virality and attempts to ape the Chinese app—Facebook Reels and YouTube Shorts come to mind—Madung said we’re looking at the “Tiktokification of the internet.”
This is important for multiple reasons. One is the fact that TikTok surfaces content based on engagement-driven algorithmic curation rather than follower counts. As Madung put it: “For me, as someone creating a disinformation campaign, I don’t have to worry about building an audience. I can just focus on my content—make sure it’s able to hit the right notes—and TikTok will do the rest for me.”
Regulation—or the lack thereof—is another big factor. Madung, who lives in Kenya, said many in Africa are worried about “the ability of information operations from Russia to spread through different parts of the continent without having to work to do it.” Pointing to the chaos surrounding last year’s Kenyan presidential election, Madung claimed TikTok fails to enforce its own ban on political advertising and also allows hate speech to fly under the radar because moderating content in the region’s many languages is expensive and there are few laws forcing the company to act. This, he said, has led to the “normalization of bad behavior.”
Does it make a difference that Europe’s new Digital Services Act is forcing Big Tech to tackle disinformation? Madung said the DSA “could provide the right type of impact legislation that could end up bringing about waves of positive change within social media platforms”—but the companies may just choose to abide by such rules in rich countries while remaining lax in others. “We are beginning to see the internet itself is fracturing and becoming a different thing depending on the countries you go to.”
A TikTok spokesperson told Fortune that the company’s community guidelines apply everywhere in the world and that TikTok had removed 91 million pieces of unwanted content in the first quarter of this year, with 97% being automatically removed before it was reported.
“Providing our global community with creative and joyful experiences on TikTok starts with feeling safe, which is why we robustly and diligently enforce our rules against harmful misinformation and hateful behavior,” the spokesperson said. “To better serve the unique needs of different communities, we partner with local and international organizations, such as AfricaCheck.org, Article 19, and AFP, as we continue to strengthen our approach to safety.”
The OSRI is now developing tools that would allow TikTok users to tell Mozilla about what TikTok is putting on their For You pages. Mozilla researchers (including Becca Ricks, who now heads up OSRI) previously did something similar with YouTube, with a web extension that let volunteers opt into donating data about the videos recommended to them. If they can now create “a mobile version that allows us to obtain similar sources” from TikTok, Madung said, that should shed more light on the platform’s impact on democracy.
News below. And by the way, remember how yesterday I wrote about Microsoft and Activision’s good news on the merger front, including the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority deciding to consider the companies’ suggestions for restructuring the deal to get regulatory clearance? Well, now it turns out the CMA might reward such a restructuring with a whole new merger investigation. This could drag on for a while yet.
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David Meyer
