TikTok bosses have angered MEPs by failing to sufficiently answer their questions in the European Parliament.
MEPs demanded answers from Tiktok following concerns about disinformation on the social media platform.
The European Parliament has also expressed concern about fake, erroneous or spurious posts during the first round of Romania’s presidential election last month. Far-right independent candidate, Călin Georgescu, unexpectedly came out on top. He has reportedly received millions of likes on TikTok.
Responding to questions from MEPs, TikTok today revealed that it had found more than 66,000 fake accounts since September. The company said it had removed seven million fake likes and 10 million fake followers.
TikTok’s global Head of Product for Authenticity & Transparency, Brie Pegum, said the platform had also removed nearly one thousand “impersonation accounts of political candidates within Romania”.
“Election integrity is extremely important for TikTok”, said TikTok’s Public Policy Director, Caroline Greer.
“We really put a lot of effort into this. We have a very large trust and safety team within TikTok. [They] are actually a central core team within the company.”
Under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), TikTok is designated a ‘Very Large Platform’. That means it has strict responsibility to tackle misinformation and disinformation. It must also submit regular reports to the European Commission.
Some MEPs accused TikTok of not meeting its obligations under the EU law.
“TikTok is a company that is deeply committed to to the DSA”, Caroline Greer insisted.
She said the platform responded to flagged posts “typically within 24 hours”.
She also hit back at fears that data from European users could end up in Chinese hands.
“TikTok is part of the ByteDance group [which is based in China], but TikTok is the international company. TikTok is headquartered in Singapore”, she said.
“European user data is held in a European enclave. It does not move to China. We have particular privacy enhancing technologies that we use as well,” she insisted.
The company has its European headquarters in Ireland. And Caroline Greer invited MEPs to visit the social media company’s Transparency and Accountability Centre in Dublin.
But that invitation did not go down well in the room.
The Chair of the Internal Markets Committee, Anna Cavazzini, was unconvinced by TikTok’s responses. MEPs are expected to discuss whether to demand the company is hauled back for a second grilling.
The European Commission confirmed that it has an “open investigation against TikTok” analysing whether the platform sufficiently protects children using it.
It is understood wider concerns about social media firms, including TikTok, will be raised by the full European Parliament when it meets in Strasbourg later this month.