TikTok Is Still Usable In Russia, Which Has Found A Loophole To Post New Videos
Did TikTok really ban content from Russian accounts? A data tracker has found that the social network is still showing European and Russian users content from the country.
The information was sourced from Tracking Exposed, a nonprofit research organization from Europe, which noticed the Chinese media platform has been “shadow-promoting” media produced within Russia.
The ban was first implemented on March 6, at the beginning of the Russian war, when a multitude of companies was pulling their businesses out of Russia in support of Ukraine.
However, it was not fully implemented until June 30, when a last-minute inclusion barred international content from popping up on Russian users’ For You page (FYP).
Tracking Exposed published a report detailing how new content was still being shown on the main page, as well as state-controlled media. Oddly enough, Russian accounts revealed vacant profiles, even though their videos made it on people’s feeds.
We also found that some verified accounts seem to escape the ban entirely.
— tracking.exposed (@trackingexposed) August 10, 2022
A number of accounts posting mostly entertainment content are consistently available via the For You page AND the account’s profile page.
Why is this happening, when TikTok itself says it should not? pic.twitter.com/Cxevc7jJln
Salvatore Romano, Head of Research at Tracking Exposed, says the organization has located six or seven of these accounts. However, he does not understand why they were able to escape the ban. Accordingly, other state-controlled accounts have been able to evade the ruling and share news to Russian viewers.
Romano goes on to state that TikTok has not been completely forward with its banning and has even failed to enforce the rule in Russia for three weeks after it was first announced. One potential reason, according to the researcher, is that the social media site wants to keep itself attractive to Russian users. Despite the ongoing war, Russia remains a very large market, and losing the consumer base will result in significant losses for the business.
On the other hand, Russia has cracked down on several private information sites and deleted them for posting content that the country deems as “fake news.”
[via Euronews and Le Monde, cover image via antonbe / Pixabay (CC0)]
