Banned or used to capture votes? The Tiktok Challenge for Swiss politicians

It is one of those videos that has gone viral on Tiktok in recent days. The camera focuses on 40-year-old Tiktok boss Shou Zi Chew. Then a stern voice asks from the start, “Mr. Chew, if I plug in my headphones, can Tiktok read my mind?” Mr. Chew looks confused.

The video pokes fun at US lawmakers, who aggressively bombarded the Tiktok boss during a five-hour hearing last week with questions: “Are you 100 percent sure that the Chinese government is not using Tiktok as a propaganda tool against Taiwan?” « Can Tiktok spy on US citizens, yes or no?».

For many Western politicians, Tiktok is an espionage and propaganda tool. In the United States, there is therefore discussion whether the Chinese video app should be banned nationwide – this is already the case for politicians with access to the government network. Members of the European Parliament have recently been banned from using the app on their work phones. Politicians are also banned in Belgium, New Zealand and Denmark. So far there are no restrictions in Switzerland.

Tiktok is the clear number 1 among Swiss primary school students

Since 2018, the video platform has spread faster than any other social network before or since. Tiktok has become indispensable, especially for children and young people. It is to them what television is to gray-haired politicians: one of the most important entertainment and information media. In the US, 18-24 year olds already spend twice as much time on the Tiktok platform as on Instagram.

Also in Switzerland, Tiktok is the clear number 1 among social networks among primary school students, according to the recently published Mike study from the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW). The study regularly looks at the media use of children between the ages of 6 and 13. According to this, Tiktok is used by 37 percent of students at least once a week, followed by Snapchat (28 percent) and Instagram (17 percent).

About two-thirds of young people in Switzerland use the app, with girls using the app more often than boys. The most popular social media app was last year when the figures for this age group were last published by the ZHAW, but still Instagram.

A social network without joy – Tiktok twists social media

Tiktok’s recipe for success is the consistent focus on short videos and a sophisticated algorithm that determines who sees what content. The original idea of ​​social media, that users can easily network with friends and acquaintances and see their posts and photos, is giving way to an algorithm in Tiktok that shows popular videos from all users, whether you know them or not. Users can also follow others, but they don’t have to.

You could also say: Tiktok is social media without friends. Not to lag behind the Chinese, other social networks have long adopted the concept. Reels are the short videos on Instagram, for example, that you can endlessly scroll through.

There is no doubt that the American services see Tiktok as a threat to their business model. But is the app actually a spy tool used by the Chinese government? That is unclear. It is difficult to assess the influence of the People’s Republic of China on Tiktok. ByteDance, Tiktok’s Beijing-based parent company, has said it will not share user data with the Chinese government.

But: Chinese law forces companies based in the country to cooperate with government agencies. “Thus, the Chinese secret service could theoretically request the release of user data related to maintaining national security at any time,” said Florian Saurwein of the Institute for Communication and Media Research at the University of Zurich. The greatest risk is for those in positions of power, whether in politics, in business, or in government institutions.

“To close this gateway to state surveillance”: ban on federal employees

So should the app also be restricted in Switzerland, at least for federal employees? This is exactly what the Freiburger National Council Gerhard Andrey (Greens) is calling for to “close this gateway to state surveillance”. Andrey is co-founder of the digital agency Liip and is professionally versed in apps and social media. He assumes that the Chinese state uses TikTok strategically for espionage: “In state capitalist China, companies are controlled by the state, which takes direct and massive action.”

However, he does not consider a general, nationwide ban on one platform appropriate: “TikTok is just one of many others with similar problematic properties.” He therefore demands that the platform operators make their practices and algorithms public. It should also be transparent to users about the rules by which a platform moderates and the criteria used to display posts.

As Andrey also points out, it is not only China’s way of handling data that is problematic, but also that of the US. Their tactics are a bit more subtle. With the so-called Cloud Act, the American state can also demand extensive data from platform operators outside the US. And if he classifies the request as secret, no one will notice.

“Thanks to Tiktok, students know me”: Andri Silberschmid is the number 1 political influencer

Judith Bellaiche, GLP National Councilor and Managing Director of Swico, the Swiss IT industry association, assesses the debate as follows: “Banning a single app simply because it comes from China is inconsistent with our economic and legal system.” She does think a healthy distance from the app is appropriate. She herself is not represented on Tiktok.

Andri Silberschmidt is different: the 29-year-old FDP National Councilor of Zurich is the Tiktok star among Swiss politicians. He has over 13,000 followers and some of his videos have been viewed over 100,000 times. Despite the associated bans in the US and the EU, he finds it no problem that as a federal politician he has installed the Tiktok app on his mobile phone. “I trust my iPhone’s security settings and don’t see why the app should be treated any differently than Instagram or Facebook,” he says.

However, if an IT expert could understandably explain to him that installing the app was a security risk, he would remove the app from his mobile phone. Don’t leave Tiktok, but manage your followers from another device. «Tiktok is an important medium for me as a politician. I am reaching a young audience here. When a school class comes to Parliament, they already know me,’ he says.

“There is no way to prove that China is involved”

Not only the unclear data security is critically assessed by experts. The algorithm that is kept under lock and key is also a concern, according to them. An algorithm has the power to distort and manipulate information space.

At Tiktok, he determines which videos are preferably shown to users, which are limited in terms of distribution and which content is completely blocked. “But whether China is involved cannot be proven,” says Florian Saurwein, whose research focuses mainly on the social effects of algorithmic selection.

The lack of transparency about the algorithm and data collection not only affects Tiktok, but all social media platforms without exception. “After all, they build their entire business model on the algorithms and data,” says Saurwein.

Even though the US government doesn’t say so publicly, a potential Tiktok ban is also about not losing technological supremacy over China. “A Tiktok ban could be just the beginning,” wrote the Wall Street Journal. Other Chinese apps such as WeChat or Alipay, which are just gaining popularity in the West, could follow suit.

The cold technology war between China and the West is on

Similarly, two decades ago, China managed to build its own technology industry by simply building Google, Facebook, Twitter and Co. and instead create similar services under its own banner. Some of these are now so strong that they may become increasingly competitive for American companies in the West as well. There is already talk of a cold technology war.

This shows: Tiktok has the power to rip open ditches. Between China and the West. But also between young people and baby boomers. For the younger generation it makes little difference that their favorite app comes from China. Banning Tiktok also posed a risk to the US government. She would feel the youngest’s incomprehension and anger.

After the US Congress hearing, some Tiktok users noticed that the videos portraying Tiktok CEO Shou Ze Chew in a good light and videos talking about the members of Congress, as described above, appear particularly frequently in the timeline , Made fun of . Did Tiktok programmers run the algorithm in the background? “It cannot be ruled out that the positive messages for Tiktok have been pushed,” says Florian Saurwein.

The other – equally conceivable – possibility is that many Tiktok users showed solidarity with the platform and actively shared the positive news with Shou Ze Chew’s resounding promises. “You have to be realistic,” says Saurwein, “young people just love Tiktok.” (aargauerzeitung.ch)