Story in France

Most recently, images of riots in France that have been widely circulated on TikTok in recent days have raised concerns about user safety, as well as how the online video sharing platform handles and manages data.

Against that backdrop, on July 6, French lawmakers called on the government to ban TikTok if the social media platform fails to clarify its current governance structure. The move comes after President Emmanuel Macron’s administration blamed social media, including TikTok, for fueling riots over the past week, at a time when the government is trying to ease tensions between citizens and police following the death of a 17-year-old North African teenager named Nahel.

Many videos shared on Tiktok are said by their owners to be related to the riots in France in recent days, but in fact they are all fake, taken from other events to attract views. Photo: The France 24 Observers

AFP quoted the Paris government in a statement saying it would work with social media sites to “remove the most sensitive content” and identify users who “call for riots or aggravate violence.” Talks between the French government and social networks have begun to quickly remove content that incites violence. The French government is also pushing to identify those who incite and incite violence online.

In addition, a French Senate investigation committee has been established to look into TikTok's data handling practices and "influence strategy" in relation to the recent riots and other incidents.

France has laws against online harassment, according to the AP. Criminal online threats and online insults can be prosecuted. In 2020, the French National Assembly also approved a bill that would require platforms and search engines to remove banned content within 24 hours.

The riots in France have also spread to other European countries, including Switzerland and Belgium. In Brussels, Belgium, protests began on June 30 and were relatively peaceful, after calls for “action like in France” appeared on social media. According to local media, the number of protesters arrested in Brussels has risen to 63. Protests also took place in Lausanne, Switzerland, but they tended to be more violent. Swiss police arrested seven people, including six minors, during the nightly riots in Lausanne.

The French government has declared its determination to deal with the current violence and is considering the responsibility of social media, especially Tiktok, in relation to this issue. Photo: Firstpost

General concerns

Not only France but also governments of countries around the world have expressed concerns that Tiktok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, could threaten sensitive user data.

Western lawmakers and regulators have said TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, could be illegally using sensitive user data for intelligence gathering. They are also concerned that TikTok’s content recommendations could lead to misinformation, illegal, harmful, and deadly content. TikTok has long denied those allegations.

One point of contention is the safety of TikTok's recommendation engine. According to The Verge, the recommendation engine uses behavioral data to determine users' interests and serve them relevant content. Some of the data that TikTok mines to serve the recommendation engine includes: How long a user stays on a page; basic login information, such as name, age, phone number, and email address; location data; IP address; biometric data.

Joel Thayer, president of the Digital Progress Institute, also pointed out a potential risk that most TikTok users are minors, so criminals can take advantage of this social network to approach children. “There are criminals who like to use these types of social networks to lure children into pornography and even human trafficking,” explained Joel Thayer.

The US government accused TikTok of collecting personal data of users in the country. Photo: CNBC

Meanwhile, US officials believe that TikTok could be forced to hand over information collected from US users to the Chinese government or be used to install harmful tracking software on US users' phones. Evidence shows that ByteDance's tracking code has been found installed on 30 US state government websites. Last year, ByteDance also admitted to accessing the location information of two US journalists for the company's internal investigation.

On March 10, 2023, Belgian Prime Minister De Croo warned about the risks associated with the large amount of user data that TikTok collects. In addition, the Belgian National Security Council is also asking the country's Data Protection Authority to investigate TikTok's privacy policy.

Meanwhile, the Czech Republic and Ireland have also launched investigations into TikTok’s data security capabilities. The reasons cited by regulators in many countries are concerns about user privacy and information security, as well as the risk of spreading harmful content, even threatening national security.

Strong "blows"

Faced with the risk of leaking user information through the Tiktok application, many countries have issued bans on this social networking platform. Partial bans are usually limited to government or public sector employees. Full bans apply to all citizens. The three countries that have issued complete bans are Jordan, India and Afghanistan. In addition, Indonesia and Pakistan have also imposed temporary bans on this platform several times.

Meanwhile, countries such as Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, the European Union (EU), France, Latvia, New Zealand, Norway, the UK... have issued bans on TikTok on government-issued devices. The ban on using TikTok on official devices has also taken effect in many countries such as the US, Canada, Denmark and Australia. The EU's three leading bodies, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council, have also imposed a ban on employees downloading the TikTok app on work-related devices.

The Danish Ministry of Defense has banned employees from installing TikTok on their phones and asked those who have already installed the app to delete it from their devices as soon as possible, citing “serious security considerations” and “very limited use in the workplace.”

The rapid increase in the number of TikTok users who are teenagers and children has also caused many parents and authorities to worry about inappropriate content being recommended on this platform. Photo: The Guardian

Since November 2022, several states in the US have “said no” to TikTok on government-issued devices, and many schools, including the University of Texas, Auburn University, and Boise State University, have blocked the app from their campus Wi-Fi networks. Students are forced to switch to cellular data to use the app. On February 27, 2023, the White House asked federal agencies to remove the app from government devices within 30 days. Shortly after, on March 1, a House committee supported a vote to pass legislation that would allow President Joe Biden to ban TikTok from all devices nationwide.

On March 10, 2023, the Belgian government also banned the entire cabinet, including the Prime Minister, ministers, and all government officials, from using TikTok. They were forced to remove the app from their official phones. The ban is valid for 6 months, after which the government will consider whether it needs to be extended.

Shortly thereafter, the European Commission also required all employees to delete the TikTok application from work-related devices by March 15. The ban is aimed at preventing the risk of exploiting cybersecurity loopholes to conduct cyber attacks on the commission's computer systems and work environment.

One of the most vocal critics in Europe is French President Macron. According to AFP, he once criticized TikTok for “pretending innocence” and being “addictive” to users. This comment led to a wave of news about the dangers of this platform. On March 24, France even announced a ban on government employees using TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and other applications on their phones due to security issues.

Therefore, the fact that Tiktok has been posting a lot of images of French police shooting teenager Nahel or protests that turned violent between French youths and the country's security forces has further fueled tensions between the French government and Tiktok. On July 6, French lawmakers are calling on President Macron to ban Tiktok because of concerns about the influence of this social network on young people. Before the riots that caused more than 1 billion USD in damage, President Macron accused social networks, specifically Tiktok and SnapChat, of being the source of inciting violence, as the country tried to prevent protests that "fueled" long-simmering tensions between the police and young people in the country.

The French Senate's Investigative Committee has published a 183-page report warning about the health and psychological impact of TikTok on young people in France. According to the report, TikTok is accused of "data mining, influence campaigns, propaganda and disinformation." According to French news agency BFM-TV, the report also mentions the expansion of the TikTok ban from phones only for French civil servants to those holding important positions in organizations including the military, energy, finance, transport and the French state management sectors. The report also suggests time restrictions for young TikTok users in France.

TikTok has not been able to control all the fabricated content about the protests in France in recent days. Photo: SBS

French government spokesman Olivier Veran stressed that widely circulated videos of the protests had “inspired” young viewers to imitate them. Since then, at least two senior French government ministers have met with representatives of TikTok, Snap, Twitter and Facebook parent company Meta, calling for restrictions on violent content and help identify users who incite violence. TikTok has refused to share user information related to the French protests.

Although it lags behind long-standing dominant social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, TikTok's user growth rate far exceeds that of its competitors. However, along with its remarkable growth, TikTok is the platform that causes the most concern regarding privacy and information security, spreading harmful information, and even threatening the national security of many countries around the world.

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Lesson 2: Rapid growth and potential risks of Tiktok

MINH ANH - WRITING