KUALA LUMPUR – Popular social media platform TikTok has faced multiple issues in Malaysia, including ineffective censorship, unwanted bot communication, and hazardous content personalisation.
Earlier this month, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said TikTok, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, made insufficient measures to limit defamatory or misleading content in the nation and failed to adhere to several laws.
Amid the ongoing Palestine-Israel war, he said TikTok systematically took down or removed Malaysia-based content related to the conflict.
He said this was proven after numerous TikTok users complained to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) that their content and live broadcasts were taken down or restricted, including those related to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s speech at rallies.
Even the government agency has faced various challenges while engaging with the social media giant.
This includes the prevalence of bot messages, and TikTok’s “For You” page curating individuals’ content based on the topics they search. As such, if a young person searches for sensitive or controversial topics, they will be continuously “fed” with information relating to the matter.
However, Malaysia is not the only country having issues with the platform.
Indonesia
Last month, TikTok was forced to suspend its online shopping service following the introduction of new rules that were meant to protect local physical and online retailers as well as accusing social media platforms of facilitating predatory pricing.
Indonesia was the first country to pilot TikTok Shop back in 2021, and grew to have six million sellers and millions more creators who earn money via the e-commerce feature.
The US
One of the most viral feuds between TikTok and US lawmakers was when its chief executive officer Shou Zi Chew was grilled for over five hours during a congressional hearing on March 23 this year.
This followed national security concerns that led to the bipartisan push to ban the app entirely.
Shou was questioned about his connection to ByteDance executives – whom the lawmakers claimed had ties to the Chinese Communist Party – which he vehemently denied.
They also asked him about TikTok’s implications towards the mental health of its young users, citing an incident where a teenager had committed suicide after allegedly being fed unsolicited self-harm content.
The Guardian reported that US President Joe Biden’s administration threatened to ban TikTok earlier this year, unless the Chinese owners divested some of their company shares.
The federal government, along with most US states, has banned the app from being downloaded on government-based mobile devices.
Meanwhile, Montana was the first state to ban the app altogether on May 17 for having ties to China, prohibiting app stores from offering it within the state by next year.
TikTok has also been receiving a series of suits from various US states, all of whom come for various reasons.
Indiana sued TikTok in December last year for misleading its users – especially the youth – about inappropriate content and information security, while Arkansas filed a suit on March 29 this year with claims that the company violated its Deceptive Trade Practices Act.
The company’s most recent suit saw Utah suing it on October 10, over accusations that the latter intentionally keeps young users spending unhealthy amounts of time on the platform, thus causing harm to them.
California Attorney-General Robert Andres Bonta said he is leading an ongoing investigation into TikTok, for harming its youth through the use of the platform.
Europe
Millions of Europeans were seemingly on the receiving end of advertisements from Chinese state media on TikTok, according to the company’s new ad library published on July 20.
Forbes reported that over a thousand advertisements have been shown to users from various European nations – including Germany, Netherlands, and the United Kingdom – since October last year.
The content advertised mainly shone China’s economy, technology, and culture in a more positive light, including the Xinjiang region.
In September, European regulators fined TikTok €345 million (approximately RM1.7 million) for violating eight articles of the General Data Protection Regulation, ranging from the lawfulness of data processing and security, to rights of access to data subjects.
The fine mainly concerned TikTok’s handling of children’s privacy and data. Profile settings for underage accounts were set to public by default, and options to skip steps to make accounts private were also available.
They also argued that the “Post Now” button to post videos was presented in bold and dark text, while the cancel button was in a lighter, presumably less visible, shade.
On October 12, EU commissioner Thierry Breton issued a letter to TikTok, warning the platform against publishing misinformation and violent content amid the war in the Gaza Strip, along with a 24-hour deadline.
Canada
Similarly, Canada launched a probe into TikTok, but this time, it is over the platform allegedly collecting users’ data and handing them over to China.
BBC reported that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner launched the probe into TikTok on February 24, with privacy regulators based in Alberta, British Columbia, and Quebec.
The probe was aimed at identifying if TikTok’s operations adhere to local privacy legislation, as well as whether they obtain “valid and meaningful” consent when collecting, using, and disclosing personal information.
It will also focus on how the platform’s privacy practices affect youths using the app, as a large sum of its users are underage. However, any findings or updates of the probe have not been disclosed to the media as of press time.
Just a few days after the probe commenced, Canada joined the bandwagon to ban government officers from installing the application on government-issued mobile devices.
Vietnam
Vietnam faced issues with TikTok allowing “toxic”, offensive, false, and superstitious content on the platform. This is despite it removing 1.7 million videos in 2022’s fourth quarter alone.
In April this year, its Information Ministry said it would begin to conduct investigations into TikTok, as the toxic content jeopardises its youth, culture, and tradition.
After an extensive few months of probing, Vietnamese authorities revealed this month that TikTok’s Singapore-based operations breached several laws on e-commerce, information security, and child protection.
It also recommended the platform remove all accounts with users aged below 13 years and set a time limit for users under 18 years. TikTok said it would cooperate to address the concerns, while proactively implementing public education initiatives to raise online safety awareness.
It should be noted that Vietnam’s effort to mitigate the child protection issue comes from the exploitation of children online.
It was also reported that a Vietnamese transactional marriage matchmaking company used TikTok to advertise local women who were “looking for husbands”.
The videos would usually include the women introducing themselves, while text bubbles describe their “features” and reiterate their “intention” to search for partners.
The report added that at one point, almost all of the company’s clientele discovered it via TikTok.
Nonetheless, it was short-lived as such posts were often banned on the platform for sexual content, resulting in the company’s account being taken down multiple times.
Japan
A group of the nation’s lawmakers planned to urge the government to ban social networking services, including TikTok, if they were used for misinformation campaigns. They followed through with their decision, and plan to push for restriction steps soon.
Japan also banned downloading the app on government devices.
While not government-related, “sushi terrorism” pranks sparked outrage in the nation after several users posted themselves licking restaurants’ utensils and sauce bottles, as well as contaminating food items on conveyor belts.
Others
Following a military clash with China, India banned TikTok in 2020 over national security concerns. Its local office was shut down three years later, leading to 40 people losing their jobs.
TikTok was also probed by the Taiwanese government on December 19 last year, over suspicion that an illegal subsidiary was operating in the nation. It has a law that prohibits Chinese social media platforms from commercially operating there.
Taiwan is also another country that prohibits government departments and employees from using TikTok – besides Australia, New Zealand, and those in the European Union – due to national security reasons. – November 2, 2023