The government’s handling of the cognitive warfare threat emerging from the social media platform TikTok has been “passive and lethargic,” the Control Yuan said in an investigative report published yesterday.
The report said that the US Congress’ passage of a bill last year — requiring TikTok’s US operations to be sold or face a shutdown — showed the global alarm over the platform’s risks to national security and children.
The probe, led by Control Yuan members Lin Wen-cheng (林文程), Lai Cheng-chang (賴振昌) and Pu Chung-cheng (浦忠成), said the government’s efforts to address TikTok were disorganized and weak, despite repeated instances of the app improperly collecting children’s personal data and serving as a channel for Beijing’s disinformation.
Photo: Reuters
The report also said that TikTok allowed harmful “challenges” to spread unchecked to boost viewership, resulting in more than 100 deaths worldwide.
In 2023, TikTok chief executive officer Shou Zi Chew (周受資) told a US congressional hearing that he did not allow his own children to use the platform, citing the absence of an under-13 mode, they said.
Citing information published by the Taiwan Communication Survey in 2023, the Control Yuan said that 46.1 percent of Taiwanese children aged nine to 12 accessed TikTok content, suggesting that the company ignored government directives for social media platforms to self-regulate and thereby exposed children’s data to the Chinese government.
They also cited an EU investigation that found TikTok stored user data on servers in China, leading regulators to impose a 530,000 euro (US$588,300) fine on the company.
Academic studies have shown that TikTok’s algorithm suppressed content critical of Beijing, while amplifying pro-China narratives in ways consistent with the platform being used as a tool of Chinese cognitive warfare, they said.
Citing a Financial Times report, the members said that Beijing has been leveraging TikTok to shape narratives in Taiwanese cyberspace and gain influence among younger users.
Yet the government has appeared to give up on regulating international platforms after setbacks to its digital services neutrality bill, leaving TikTok and other Chinese social media platforms such as Xiaohongshu (小紅書, known in English as “RedNote”), virtually unregulated, the members said.
They urged the government to re-evaluate its policy and establish mechanisms to regulate social media, adding that inaction could further endanger Taiwanese children and national security.
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