TikTok discriminated against women and promoted xenophobic stereotypes before European elections - report
Kyiv • UNN
According to a report by Finnish analysts, TikTok search results during the European election campaign contained discriminatory and xenophobic content against women, minorities, and marginalized groups, which contributed to the spread of harmful stereotypes and misinformation.
Once known for its dance challenges and viral trends, TikTok is now becoming an important platform for political campaigning. About 47% of young people aged 18 to 24 in Finland use TikTok, and about a third of European Parliament candidates have actively used the app in their campaigns. Such conclusions were reached by Finnish analysts of CheckFirst algorithms and the fact-checking service Faktabaari within the framework of the CrossOver project, UNN reports .
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A study by Finnish analysts showed that during the election campaign, toxic statements about women politicians, migrants, and ethnic minorities were increasing in TikTok search results.
According to the website of the CrossOver Finland monitoring project, the lack of moderation on TikTok has led to the appearance of objectivist and sexist language in the search results for women politicians, as well as unpleasant information about both women and men politicians.
"The search recommendations contain many harsh statements about women politicians and ethnic minorities. For example, a search for female politicians such as former Prime Minister Sanna Marin revealed inappropriate, sexualized content, while a search for party leaders such as Green Pekka Haavisto resulted in suggestions related to child abduction," explains lead author and researcher Alexi Knuutila.
Search suggestions are partially influenced by other users' queries, which means that they can unintentionally broadcast stereotypes and false statements.
According to the report, some of these suggestions were not random, but were linked to searches and videos made about these people, and many of them were negative or problematic in their own way.
Most often, the search suggestions were accusatory or critical. For example, a query about Mauri Peltokangas, a member of the far-right True Finns party, resulted in the word "traitor". And about Pekki Haavisto, a representative of the center-left Green League, the word "child abductor" was used.
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It is noted that all this potentially creates a biased attitude towards them on the part of the public, which is especially dangerous on the eve of the elections.
Overall, TikTok's search results contained offensive language against women and discriminated groups, including Jews and the LGBT community, the report said.
The search results for women included such results as "go to the kitchen" and "shut your mouth". Other phrases offered for autocomplete included "gypsies steal" and "refugees, go away.
These proposals increase verbal violence, the report says. It is also noted that TikTok does not make efforts to combat xenophobia on its platform.
There were also controversial proposals related to COVID-19. For example, the phrases "Vaccines are harmful" and "Fear of vaccinations" can be cited. Although they usually lead to videos in which experts debunk vaccine-related myths, content about the alleged dangers of vaccines still slipped through the cracks.
The report says that the presence of such videos suggests that TikTok's anti-disinformation efforts need further audit and that the platform should moderate its search suggestions.
Guillaume Kuster, CEO of CheckFirst, noted that TikTok's search recommendations are very easy to manipulate.
"Recommendations are partially based on hashtags, and even rarely used hashtags become search suggestions. This means that search results can be easily influenced by automating videos with specific hashtags," Kuster explained.
The report also found that TikTok's efforts to ensure election security by tagging official election-related videos were only partially implemented, with only two-thirds of the most popular election content receiving such tags.
"TikTok should clean up its recommendations by removing toxic language about women and minorities. Google has done a better job of moderating search suggestions, and TikTok should follow suit," says Mikko Salo.
