In France, the opacity of the Chinese social network TikTok was pinpointed by Arcom in its report published at the end of 2022 which underlines that the company has “taken an incredible place at lightning speed”, especially among young people. And a commission of inquiry into TikTok should see the light of day in the Senate, we learned on Friday from parliamentary sources. The Les Indépendants group chaired by Claude Malhuret, which is particularly attached to data protection and the responsibility of platforms for the content they broadcast, “plans” to exercise its drawing rights for the creation of such a commission of investigation.
Claude Malhuret had been in 2019 one of the few senators to support the flagship measure of the Avia law, the obligation for platforms to remove “manifestly” illegal content within twenty-four hours, stressing that “freedom of expression is not is not to spread hatred”.
Comply “fully” with EU rules
Owned by the Chinese giant ByteDance, TikTok is in the crosshairs of the American authorities. A law just signed into law by President Joe Biden bans the use of the popular video-sharing platform in the House of Representatives and Senate, as well as on public servants’ devices. Conservative elected officials accuse TikTok of being a tool of espionage or propaganda in the service of Beijing.
In Europe, several senior European officials called, in early January, the CEO of the Chinese social network Shou Zi Chew to “fully” respect EU rules, in particular concerning data protection and the fight against disinformation. President Emmanuel Macron, who himself has an account with nearly 4 million subscribers, judges the network to be “confoundingly naive”.
As a reminder, each political group has the right to set up one commission of inquiry or one fact-finding mission per parliamentary year (drawing right). However, it must meet admissibility criteria and be approved by the Conference of Presidents… whose next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.