Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

US Senate Questions TikTok over Russian 'Pro-War Propaganda'


Sat 18 Jun 2022 | 01:57 PM
Omnia Ahmed

The U.S. Senate asked TikTok about pro-Russian content that was allowed on social media amid the Ukrainian-Russian war.

"Recent reports indicate TikTok… has allowed Russian state media to flood the platform with dangerous pro-war propaganda. No company should find itself in the position of amplifying the Kremlin’s lies, which fuel public support for Russia’s war of choice in Ukraine," said the letter, led by Steve Daines and signed by John Cornyn, Roger Wicker, John Barrasso, James Lankford, and Cynthia Lummis.

The Senate noted that the senators were "deeply concerned" that TikTok "is enabling the spread of pro-war propaganda to the Russian public, which risks adding to an already devastating human toll for both Ukrainians and Russians."

The letter added the "misleading, pro-regime content that flooded the service has not been taken down, creating an easily-accessible archive of pro-war propaganda." The Senate asked the video-sharing app to answer a series of questions.

In response, TikTok said in a statement to Reuters that the company was looking forward to continuing to engage with members on these issues and answer their questions.

Last April, the app disappeared from the research results in the Russian app store and became harder to download on the phones. Reports revealed that the same problem was also observed with those from Belarus.

The Chinese company has unveiled plans to temporarily restrict users in Russia from streaming and uploading new videos to its platform.

“We have no choice but to suspend live broadcasts and new content for our video service in Russia while we review the security implications of this law,” TikTok said. “We will continue to assess the circumstances in Russia, to determine when we can fully resume our services with safety as our top priority.”