Federal officials warned law enforcement agencies this spring that domestic extremists had used TikTok in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 riots on the Capitol, including by promoting bringing guns to Washington that day
, according to an internal government document — highlighting authorities’ growing concern over violent content on the video app.reviewed by POLITICO, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis said American extremists used the Chinese-owned social media platform to recruit people to their causes, as well as share “tactical guidance” for terrorist and criminal activities.
Until now, security agencies have paid more attention to the likes of Facebook and YouTube for their roles as potential breeding grounds for hate speech and real-world violence. But as young people turn away from their parents’ social media networks to newer upstarts, these platforms like TikTokDHS said that it issued the alert specifically about TikTok, in part, because of “some Homeland Security stakeholders’ limited awareness of its functionality.
“The extremism research field itself is pretty slow on TikTok,” said Hughes, whose organization receives some DHS funding. “There’s something to be said about the demographics of researchers — they tend to skew older. Very few can hear the first five seconds of a TikTok video and know what song that’s referencing.”
“A user’s account may have zero followers but could have substantial viewership on some videos, which could aid violent extremist TikTok users in evading TikTok’s content moderation efforts,” it continues.
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