'You've started a fire': Tiktok execs fail to convince French lawmakers at hearing
"Guaranteeing the safety of our community is an essential priority for TikTok." That was the message repeated by the platform's representatives who appeared before the French parliamentary investigative committee on the psychological effects of TikTok on minors on Thursday, June 12. MPs continually challenged this claim, pointing to examples of failures that were difficult to justify.
For example, around 10 days after the removal of the hashtag #SkinnyTok, used in videos offering extreme weight-loss advice, Laure Miller, the committee's centrist rapporteur, was able to show first-hand that videos encouraging disordered eating remained easily accessible on the platform. "Our users are very creative, including in how they circumvent the rules," responded Brie Pegum, head of technical regulatory matters at TikTok.
The committee's chair, the Socialist Arthur Delaporte, and rapporteur, Miller, also cited violent and sexist statements made by the influencer Alex Hitchens, which had never been sanctioned. "I am not familiar with that content or its context," replied Pegum. Other examples included videos related to suicide or self-harm that remained online, despite being reported by lawmakers.
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