‘Chinese propaganda arm’ stealthily using TikTok to bash ‘mostly Republicans’: report

Communist China's state-run media is using TikTok – a social media site mainly popular with young Americans – to stealthily influence politics in the United States, bashing "mostly Republicans" with "divisive videos." This is according to a new report from Forbes. 

Journalist Emily Baker-White explained that MediaLinks TV, "a registered foreign agent and Washington D.C.-based outpost of the main Chinese Communist Party television news outlet," posts videos "without clear disclosure that they were posted by a foreign government." 

Some of the videos posted in the months prior to the 2022 midterms include captions like "Cruz, Abbott Don’t Care About Us," "Rubio Has Done Absolutely Nothing." In her piece, Baker-White wrote, "Nothing in these videos disclosed to viewers that they were being pushed by a foreign government."

According to Forbes, MediaLinks TV "criticized some candidates (mostly Republicans), and favored others (mostly Democrats)."

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One of the largest accounts run by MediaLinksTV is @NewsTokks. Many of its videos focus on abortion, gun control (one example was entitled "A Uniquely American Plague"), structural racism. Baker-White explained these are "all topics that were also used by Russian election meddlers seeking to divide Americans and weaken confidence in democratic institutions." 

The Forbes article noted that there is some identifying information on the MediaLinks accounts. Profile bios read: "Material distributed by MediaLinks TV LLC on behalf of CCTV. More info at DOJ, D.C.." But as Baker-White stated, most don’t click on bios. And those who do might not know that CCTV stands for the state-run China Central TV. 

TikTok is owned by the Beijing-based ByteDance. As Forbes pointed out, that company allegedly "instructed employees working on one of its other apps, a now-defunct news aggregator called TopBuzz, to push pro-China messages to U.S. users." (ByteDance has denied this.)

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In early November, South Dakota Republican Governor Kristi Noem issued an executive order banning state agencies from using TikTok. Noem told Fox News, "It's off our networks. It's blocked off of our servers. Any state employee, anybody who contracts with the state of South Dakota, anybody who uses the national security threat that it is."

Regarding the potential threat of China manipulating TikTok, she warned, "It's so much worse. And they're our enemy. They hate us. This is why it's so important that other elected officials take action as well." 

On Tuesday, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton suggested, "If you have [TikTok] on your phone, you should probably delete it and get a new phone."

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TikTok Spokesperson Jamie Favazza issued this statement responding to the Forbes report: "We continue to speak to experts around the world to inform the ongoing development and roll out of our global state-controlled media policy and product features. It's our goal to ensure we're developing comprehensive and thoughtful policies and features that serve our community. 

Since we began our pilot program this year in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, we've expanded our approach to label both videos and profile pages, and improved visibility of the label on content through better positioning and design. We plan to introduce our state-controlled media policy and corresponding labels globally next year as part of our continued focus on media literacy. As we previously confirmed, the global rollout will include China state media."