In three previous reports, we highlighted the issue of TikTok accounts with unclear affiliations and questionable authenticity actively distributing and promoting politician and party content ahead of elections to the European Parliament.
Before the second round of the French snap elections, we revisited the issue for France, checking whether murky TikTok accounts support parties and candidates from across the political spectrum. We identified 27 accounts supporting leading parties or candidates, that, in our view, do not comply with TikTok’s Community Guidelines or DSA obligations to mitigate systemic risks to civic discourse and electoral processes. The reasons include:
- Impersonation of political candidates or parties, using the same logo, photo, and name, possibly initiated by the parties and candidates themselves to boost their presence on the platform. Crucially, users cannot ascertain to whom these accounts belong.
- Labeling the account as a “fan account” in the description rather than in the account name, contrary to TikTok’s policies (“Parody or fan-based accounts are allowed, as long as they are clearly disclosed in the account name (note that this is different than the @username”).
- Accounts with strong signals of inauthentic engagement. The account @rassemblementnationalrn only posted four videos yesterday, but already accumulated 468, 000 followers.
- Even when labeled as a fan account, the content posted is extremely similar to official party content, such as videos of internal meetings and celebrations, giving a strong suspicion that these accounts are part of a party organisation.
It is striking that, after three reports, TikTok has not conducted a systematic review of these accounts before the highly contested French elections. As previously mentioned, identifying clear cases of impersonation was not difficult.
We reiterate our previous recommendations to TikTok:
- Review these accounts immediately in light of TikTok’s community guidelines, ensuring consistency in the definition of fan accounts, which should display fan-based status in the account name.
- Engage proactively in reviewing such accounts, especially before elections, to mitigate electoral risks from impersonation or lack of authenticity.
- Revise TikTok’s community guidelines to prevent the abuse of the fan account category, particularly concerning political figures and entities. We will expand on this in an upcoming report.
List of Accounts (Please see screenshots in the report download)
|
Accounts URL |
Followers |
|
29K |
|
|
41K |
|
|
39K |
|
|
468K |
|
|
19K |
|
|
1K |
|
|
2K |
|
|
2K |
|
|
2K |
|
|
3K |
|
|
1K |
|
|
1K |
|
|
96K |
|
|
3K |
|
|
27K |
|
|
6K |
|
|
34K |
|
|
47K |
|
|
1K |
|
|
36K |
|
|
27K |
|
|
31K |
|
|
1K |
|
|
0.5K |
|
|
29K |
|
|
5K |
|
|
1K |
This project was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Culture of Solidarity Fund powered by the European Cultural Foundation in collaboration with Allianz Foundation and the Evens Foundation.
