Wasting Away Again in MAGA-ville
Why is TikTok, a video service aimed at teens, awash in crudely made pro-Trump videos?
Poor TikTok. I just can’t seem to help myself — I always keep bothering them.
I keep picturing some hip customer service rep in Los Angeles. A customer service rep straight out of an episode of “Insecure” (think Lawrence’s hip start-up) — having to field emails and customer complaints from parents about TikTok content all day. Could you imagine having to be on the content moderation team of TikTok? Now there’d be a post-Trump sitcom for the streaming era.
Memo to that overworked employee managing the content moderation team at TikTok: I sure hope you’re taking notes for that future memoir.
I’m going to pick on TikTok yet again. Not so much for content this time. No, I’m just pointing out that as TikTok gains in popularity, as it becomes a premiere means of sharing video content aimed at teens and young adults, it also becomes an epicenter for the same garbage that we’ve seen proliferating for years across multiple platforms. Just as Facebook and Twitter became awash in meaningless junk in the Trump-era, so too does TikTok in the Biden. E tu, brutus?
This isn’t about content that is specific to TikTok. Lke, say, that horrific shotgun suicide video that every 13 year old I know saw before TikTok security managed to flag it.
No, I’m going to discuss some of the craptactular content that seems to now be percolating first on TikTok, and then is slowly leveraged across multiple platforms for God-only-knows what reasons.
Is it state sponsored? I don’t know.
Is it coordinated inauthentic behavior? Not sure.
Is it crass and moronic pro-Trump content? Oh, you betcha!
The Trump Train might have been slowed by the failure of the armed meth heads in pulling-off a coup attempt against a lightly defended Capitol building; but it hasn’t been fully derailed!
It seems as if I can’t login onto TikTok lately without being bombarded with all sorts of pro-Trump content. It’s not slick — I’m guessing that the Trump Organization’s checks have long been bouncing — but still, it’s out there.
It’s not slick, and, to my eye at least, it’s not exactly organic either. Not sure why, in July of 2021, a video service obstensabily aimed at teenswould be flooded with pro-Trump content that would have seemed dated even in 2017.
But, shit, I guess, that’s where we are!
The fun bonus is that since TikTok is such an overwhelming driver of content, the accounts that do share garbage Trump content on the platform will, when illuminated, provide insight into a whole world of affiliated bullshit and spam on the larger internet.
Trump and his cartoonish ways really wowed the Ok Boomer crowd in the Red States. Now, in retirement, his digital presence is a driving force for spam, misinformation, and odd inauthentic behavior online that <totally> isn’t being run out of a digital sweatshop in St. Petersburg, Tehran or Barotac Nuevo.
Let’s take a look at some of this bullshit, shall we?
Even a quick rundown of a few things, including one person’s attempt to shine a light on it, will explain pretty quickly why so much of this stuff proliferates online.
Below is an example of one of the things that piss me off. This is the sort of things that is common on TikTok. Because TikTok in more lenient in content moderation (including with the odd, pro-Trump content presumably aimed at teens) it’s nearly a guarantee that it will be spread across multiple platforms after taking hold first on TikTok.
Meaning, that instead of trying to leverage Instagram or Twitter or Facebook to spread content, it sure seems as if TikTok is now the preferred first method of distribution. And, that TikTok’s seemingly less-than-proactive content moderation policies might be helping to facilitate this process.
Why? The cynical side of me says that TikTok’s Moscow engineering office — combined with TikTok’s Chinese ownership — really doesn’t give a flying fuck if the kiddies are bombarded with pro-Trump, alt-right material. As long as it isn’t Navalny or Tiananmen, who cares? You average 18 year old college freshmen might not be too politically savvy in the fall of 2021. But believe you me, they’ll be introduced to jokes about Hunter Biden’s laptop by some goofy TikTok video of questionable origin by Thanksgiving break.
The less cynical side of me says that TikTok is working to be a company that somehow fits in and complies with Western norms. I’d like to optimistic believe that as time goes on, TikTok will be able to better deal with inauthentic and state-sponsored behavior on the platform, and that they wont engage in the same extreme secrecy that the American people had to endure with Twitter and YouTube.
One can hope.
It is my contention that the bad stuff, the nonsense, the garbage content, the “wasting away again in MAGA-ville”: it is all now migrating to TikTok because Facebook and Twitter have finally managed to get a handle on the problems that plagued (pardon the pun) their platforms and helped elect Trump and other authoritarian leaders across the world.
Below i’ll discuss just one small issue I had, because I am sure there’s nothing more you love more than hearing an American complain.
In all seriousness, this one small issue isn’t the type of problem that rises to the level of warranting regulation by Congress or the EU, but when combined with the larger world of these problems online, this is the type of small problem that is illuminating.
Without much further ado: Here’s one of my pet peeves:
A Tweet out of context. Long the domain of the paranoid and/or schizoid.
Take a look a these screenshots, read the captions, and then i’ll explain further below…
It seems innocent enough. A small account with not much engagement. However, once you start multiplying this by 100, you see where the problems start.
It seems innocuous enough. An account purporting to be from a political figure or government official, when in reality it’s not.
Having seen this account about a dozen times, I decided to read up on TikTok’s rules governing inauthentic behavior.
That’s when I came across this:
According to TikTok’s own regulations, they take the following stand regarding impersonation:
“We do not allow accounts that pose as another person or entity in a deceptive manner. When we confirm a report of impersonation, we will ask the user to revise the profile or suspend or ban the account. We do allow parody, commentary, or fan accounts, as long as the user indicates in the bio and username that it is fan, commentary, or parody and not affiliated with the subject of the account.
Do not pose as another person or entity by using someone else’s name, biographical details, or profile picture in a misleading manner.”
So, I decided to send them an email:
Robby Delaware
Thu, Jul 8, 2:52 PM (3 days ago)
to security, transparency
Dear TikTok-
Hello! My name is Robby Delaware, and I have emailed you previously about different issues on the TikTok platform.
You’ve been responsive (although not exactly communicative) about a number of issues that I have raised. I would like to thank you for that responsiveness.
I wouldn’t be sending an email if I wasn’t, of course, complaining.
I would like to direct your attention to what I believe is a problematic account on the platform. Here’s a link to the account:
https://www.tiktok.com/@officeofformerpresident
This account has a user name and bio that states “Office of Former President.” In addition, this account uses the Presidential seal as a profile picture.
Here’s a screenshot of how this account presents itself on TikTok:
This account shares the usual boilerplate of pro-Trump, anti-Fauci, pro-Russian (shock) content that is shared by numerous accounts like this online.
According to TikTok’s own Election Integrity guidelines, TikTok does not allow accounts that “pose as another person or entity in a deceptive manner.” and that accounts may not “pose as another person or entity by using someone else’s name, biographical details, or profile picture in a misleading manner.”
TikTok does allow parody as long as, “the user indicates in the bio and username that it is fan, commentary, or parody and not affiliated with the subject of the account.”
This “Office of the Former President” account:
- Presents itself as the official account of the office of President Trump
2. Uses the Presidential seal as the profile photo
3. Does not specify that it is a parody account in the bio
I believe that all three of these issues are significant enough to warrant a review by TikTok.
Thank you for taking the time to look into this issue, and I commend TikTok’s efforts to ensure that nefarious actors can’t use the platform for negative purposes.
-Robby Delaware
After reporting this account — I did something I haven’t been nearly as thorough about as I should have been. I started making sure that problematic content and accounts that I report are uploaded to the Wayback Machine.
This problematic account was reported to TikTok some days ago. As of today, the account is still active.
This whole post (if you’re still reading this far) could possibly be a preview for something else later. There was recently a massive homophobic pogrom in Tbilisi. It is my belief that by nearly every measure, TikTok videos played a role in the incitement of a riot. It is also my belief that a coordinated effort was carried out on TikTok that resulted in clear electoral interference in a former Soviet state. Furthermore, this interference seemed to certainly benefit Russian geo-political interests in the region.
I think it’s a safe bet that dozens of people are looking at TikTok’s moderation policies. I think I myself have found something interesting, but it will likely to take some time to research.
Anyways, until next time. Stay safe and stay healthy.