Tiktok deleted dozens of accounts involved in attempts to handle the Czech elections: “The content glorifies Vladimir Putin”

The Tiktok platform, owned by China, has deleted dozens of accounts reported for trying to interfere in the Czech parliamentary elections that are held on Friday and Saturday. Experts have reported hundreds of accounts on Tiktok as displaying unauthorized behavior, and the platform has eliminated dozens of them, the Czech office for telecommunications told Political, according to News.ro.

The Czech election campaign was affected by false news and propaganda, with tactics ranging from misinformation websites that translated directly from Russian sources sanctioned to boots that were given as candidates on social networks.

The local Risk Labs online research network said it has found 286 accounts on Tiktok with “a cumulative audience of 5 to 9 million views per week”, exceeding that of many political parties, which seemed to promote extremist parties such as freedom and direct democracy (SPD)! (Stačilo!) Extremely left.

Both parties could, for the first time since the fall of communism in 1989, come directly to government – or to provide support to the right Ano Party of Andrej Babiš, who leads in polls.

“The content includes, for example, the glorification of Vladimir Putin, misinformation and narratives that legitimize Russia's aggression in Ukraine, as well as demonstrations of the power of the Russian army,” said Risk Labs.

On August 1, Tiktok proactively eliminated 98.5% of the content that violated its rules regarding the integrity of the elections, the misinformation and content generated by AI, as well as 46 accounts that were given as officials, said the Polito platform. “We proactively implemented additional safety and security measures before the Czech elections, including an electoral center in the application to provide access to authorized voting information,” Tiktok said.

About 2.5 million people use Tiktok in the Czech Republic, a much lower proportion than in Romania, where last year's presidential elections were canceled after the ultra -nationalist and skeptical candidate towards NATO Călin Georgescu appeared out of the blue and won the vote, driven by the content of Tiktok, notes Politico.

The European Commission has participated in a round table with Google, Metal, Microsoft, Tiktok and X technological giants, organized by the Czech Office for Telecommunications on August 29, said the spokesman Thomas Requenier. The platforms “have declared their availability to respond to potential incidents,” said the Czech office for telecommunications, but stressed the commission's responsibility for systemic risks.