Debate Written Summary – Connor Barkey & Yiwen Wang

(Negative)
Connor Barkey:
Concerns about TikTok are not a moral panic.

Past concerns about the effects of Facebook and Instagram would likely have been labelled
moral panic by some, however research has shown Facebook has fostered white supremacy
(Conway, Scrivens, McNair 2019) and misinformation on topics like COVID-19 (Bagchi &
Singh 2020, p. 8) or US elections (Blasé & Singh 2020, p. 15). Researchers have found
examples of disinformation related to topics such as COVID on the service (Ibid, p. 38).

Political content is increasingly common on TikTok (Fritz, Impiombato & Ryan 2020, p. 22).
This is an issue as TikTok videos can be no longer than one minute, meaning that there is
great potential for misinformation as people try to explain complex topics oversimply or
intentionally spread misinformation.

TikTok already has a history of censorship and heavy-handed content moderation. For
example, leaked content moderation documents showed that TikTok had instructed its
moderators to censor content that mentions certain topics, like Tiananmen Square or
Tibetan independence (Hern 2019). Research has also shown that TikTok has “suppressed”
posts referencing certain world leaders or content with LGBQTI hastags (Hern 2019).
Suppressing is a type of censorship where posts are not deleted but are hidden from other
users feed without the creator knowing.

TikTok is owned by Bytedance. As a Chinese company, ByteDance is obligated to participate

in intelligence work and also legally required to spread CCP propaganda (Fritz, Impiombato
& Ryan 2020, p. 47). As TikTok’s technology and popularity develops, there will be increasing
potential for the CPP to use the platform to monitor dissent and frame narratives on a
global scale and influence global politics (Ibid).

Bibliography:

Conway, M., Macnair, L. & Scrivens, R. 2019, Right-Wing Extremists’ Persistent Online
Presence: History and Contemporary Trends, International Centre for Counter-Terrorism,
viewed 28 March 2021, <https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep19623>.

Bagchi, K. & Singh, S. 2020, How Internet Platforms Are Combating Disinformation and
Misinformation in the Age of COVID-19, New America, viewed 28 March 2021,
<https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep25418.5>.

Blase, M. & Singh, S. 2020, How Internet Platforms Are Addressing Election and Voter
Suppression Related Misinformation and Disinformation, New America, viewed 28 March
2021, <https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep26363.11>.
 Fritz, A., Impiombato, D. & Ryan, F. 2020, TikTok and WeChat: Curating and controlling
global information flows, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, viewed 28 March 2021,
<https://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep26120.5>.

Hern, A. 2019 ‘Revealed: how TikTok censors videos that do not please Beijing’, The
Guardian, 25 September, viewed 28 March 2021,
<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/25/revealed-how-tiktok-censors-
videos-that-do-not-please-beijing>.

Hern, A. 2019 ‘TikTok's local moderation guidelines ban pro-LGBT content’, The
Guardian, 26 September, viewed 28 March 2021,
<https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/sep/26/tiktoks-local-moderation-
guidelines-ban-pro-lgbt-content>.

Yiwen Wang:
TikTok fears are not just a moral panic. TikTok's 'censorship', the potential for propaganda
and dissemination of harmful misinformation, as well as mass data mining and storage may
even have caused serious problems for our society. The first opposing side mentioned that
Tik Tok's parent company is in a totalitarian state, and that the potential harm caused by its
social media service in this context is mainly in the form of restricting freedom of expression
through government censorship. Tik Tok may be used by centralised regimes to monitor
dissent and develop propaganda capabilities. The second opposing side added that this is a
universal issue and that the harms of Tik Tok are also occurring in Western countries (Reilly,
2018). Firstly, politicians in various countries have shown a tendency to place extreme
importance on social media (Choi 2018). The battle between national political forces on the
open social media platform may shape the antagonism of people in different countries on
the internet, increasing the likelihood of international conflict and global instability (Choi
2018). Secondly, due to the technological nature of Tik Tok and the non-mainstream status
of populism, populism is particularly well suited to be spread on Tik Tok through 'pan-
lifestyle' (Samantha & Howard 2017). Populism, on the other hand, is considered to be a
source of xenophobia. Xenophobia can lead to racism, ethnic conflict and social violence,
and can be an obstacle to economic and trade exchanges. Therefore, the challenge of Tik
tok to global stability is perhaps more important than the problems it raises in social and
personal life.

References

D. Choi. 2018., ‘Trump's claims were 'false and utterly absurd': The wife of fired FBI deputy
director Andrew McCabe says the president's attacks turned their lives upside down’.

Gumbus, A. & Grodzinsky, F. 2015 “Era of big data: danger of discrimination". Computers
and Society 45 (3): 118-125 eReading.
Reilly，I. 2018. 'F for Fake: Propaganda! Hoaxing! Hacking! Partisanship! And Activism! in
the Fake News Ecology' The Journal of American Culture, doi:10.1111/jacc. 12834
eReading

Samantha Bradshaw, N. Howard, 2017. ‘Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers:A Global

Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation. ’ University of Oxford.