TikTok can't be trusted to tackle CCP-linked information ops

But the Australian government's anti disinformation bill could lead them towards greater transparency.

Screenshot of videos from a TikTok account linked to a Chinese covert influence campaign.

In a welcome development last year, TikTok announced that it would start publishing insights about the covert influence operations it identifies and removes from its platform globally in its quarterly community guidelines enforcement reports.

Since then, the platform has published three quarterly reports that identified 22 separate covert influence operations originating in countries as various as Russia, Azerbaijan, Ireland, Georgia, Kenya, and Taiwan. But there has been one glaring exception: China.

In my latest piece in The Strategist, I suggest that the Australian government’s proposed Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill 2023 might put TikTok on a path towards greater transparency.

Read it here.