Experts explain the real impact TikTok's new policies around state-controlled media might have

TikTok's decisions to restrict or label Russian content could shape the future of how the platform operates, experts told Insider.

• TikTok developed new policies on how to deal with "state-controlled media" this month.
• According to experts, the platform's complicated relationship with Russia has to be considered
• Overall, what may drive future policy decisions is ultimately self-interest.

A few days after it banned Russia Today and Sputnik on its platform in the EU, TikTok announced on March 4 that it was developing an official policy on how it deals with state-controlled media. TikTok has since also banned all livestreaming and new content creation in Russia in response to the country's new "fake news" law which could land people in prison for sharing content authorities deem as "false." 

Many accounts backed by Russian funding are now labeled as "Russia state-controlled media'' — including several viral video pages with seemingly innocuous posts. Some haven't posted on the platform in weeks.

TikTok has long been averse to political content, but Russia's invasion of Ukraine put the platform at the center of an ongoing information war and flooded the app with videos from the conflict. TikTok's decisions to restrict or label Russian content could shape the future of how the platform operates, experts told Insider, testing how it reacts to major political events and disinformation campaigns.

The main pages of Russia Today and Sputnik are no longer available to view in the EU, but several smaller accounts affiliated with Russian funding still exist including @russian_rtd, which is verified and has 72,000 followers, @rt.news (122,000 followers), Ruptly (67,000 followers), @sputnikvideo (61,000 followers), and @redfishstream (1,073 followers) — all of which have been given the "Russia state-controlled media" label.

Several accounts that now have been labeled state-controlled media do not present themselves as connected to the Kremlin. Redfish media, for instance, targets a left-wing audience and postures itself as a progressive, independent news organization. Soapbox, an account with 162,000 followers that features criticism of U.S. politics, now also has the label. In The Now, an account with 515,000 followers on TikTok, mostly re-shares humorous and heartwarming viral videos about animals and children, but has also been slapped with the warning.

The impact of TikTok's action could be significant, according to experts, but comes down to how consistent the platform will be in the future, and how its relationship with Russia plays out.

—Renee DiResta (@noUpside) March 6, 2022

TikTok was under pressure to 'do something'

Tom Siegel, the cofounder of internet safety company Trust Lab, and former VP of trust and safety at Google, told Insider TikTok's response is "just the tip of the iceberg" in what can be done to monitor and control "bad content" on social media.

TikTok may have acted fast after it faced significant pressure to shift its policies, Siegel said, "but the end result "is unlikely to be substantive." What to do with state-controlled media is a huge issue for social media companies, Siegel added, with many nuances and sensitivities to consider.

"With 200 countries to think about, it's like walking on a tightrope across a large gorge," Siegel said.

What often happens, Siegel believes, is that social media platforms make incremental changes as part of a strategy of appeasing critics and avoiding major changes. He said he sees TikTok taking small steps "so they can be consistent and not have to roll things back later."

TikTok decisions on what to do about Russian content are influenced by its competitors, according to D. Bondy Valdovinos Kaye, a digital cultures researcher and coauthor of the upcoming book "TikTok: Creativity and Culture in Short Video." But they are also "trying to get ahead of being outright banned," he added.

Despite taking action on Russian accounts, TikTok has still been walking a careful line and has stopped short of outright deleting any accounts. Russia is one of the largest markets for TikTok, and three of the top 50 creators on the platform are Russian.

TikTok has run into multiple different political issues with Russia in the past, Valdovinos Kaye said. For example, in July last year, Vladimir Putin signed a law requiring foreign based tech companies with more than 500,000 active users to open local offices in the country. TikTok didn't comply. Also, in TikTok's transparency report for 2021, out of 2,434 global government requests to remove or restrict content or accounts, 1,898 came from Russia.

"Russia was submitting almost 20 times more than the next most irate government," Valdovinos Kaye said. "So Russia has already had TikTok on high alert."

According to Valdovinos Kaye, TikTok may see users in Russia run to different video sharing platforms, which has happened when other countries such as India have banned the platform.

TikTok warnings are a start for combating misinformation, but it's unclear how far the platform is willing to go

Rachael Levy, the director of geopolitical risk at computer software company Active Fence that detects malicious content online, where she leads services and solutions for misinformation, and disinformation, told Insider there are many reasons that make this situation unique that explain why TikTok has stepped in now. Russia's new laws around "false" information have led users, activists, platforms, and freedom of speech to "a dark place," she said

"I think anytime there's the potential for real world harm, that definitely is something that everyone is gonna be attuned to and concerned about," she said.

The average person on TikTok isn't likely to be questioning where the information they're viewing is originating, so warning labels are a starting point for "a toolbox" so users can start being more critical of the content they're consuming.

TikTok's decision to add state-sponsored media labels to Russian accounts brings up a number of questions about whether it will consistently enforce that policy, Siegel said, and whether it may apply to other countries in the future. TikTok's links with China are a particularly sensitive element (its parent company ByteDance is Chinese), considering other platforms have taken action in labeling Chinese state media in the past.

Although it's possible that TikTok may change its platform policy and increase its content moderation, researchers believe the platform is more likely to make smaller tweaks that will help it avoid bad publicity or legal repercussions. Russia's new "fake news" laws create serious legal liabilities for creators and publishers in the country, something which Valdovinos Kaye thinks TikTok is eager to avoid.

The platform has been quick to cover itself from legislation or legal battles in the past — in 2019, TikTok (then Musical.ly) reached a settlement of $5.7 million out of court almost immediately when the FTC accused the platform of collecting data from children under the age of 13 without their parental consent. Despite TikTok stating that its concerns are with safety on the app, researchers say that what may drive future policy decisions is ultimately self-interest.

"TikTok just opted to take these actions now and they claim to be wanting to protect their users," Valdovinos Kaye said. "I do believe that there's probably some truth to that, but more so, I think they're worried about protecting themselves."