In this edition, we look at whether TikTok’s algorithms could have swayed the Romanian presidential elections, and ask if Europe should ban under-16s from social media.
Our guests are Petros Fassoulas, Secretary General of European Movement, TikTok influencer Soundous Boualam and Robert Taylor from New Direction.
The panel reflected on the rise of TikTok over the past few years.
Topping the first round of presidential elections in Romania two weeks ago was Călin Georgescu, an unknown populist, triggering a number of reflections on the role played by the social media network’s algorithms.
Rival candidate Elena Lasconi has said Russian bots were responsible for the TikTok surge, though TikTok itself has called those reports inaccurate and misleading.
Soundous Boualam, who has millions of daily likes on TikTok, remains a huge supporter of the platform.
“TikTok promotes good content,” she told the panel, adding that users such as Georgescu are so popular because “they are mastering the art of TikTok and what you call ‘being Western friendly'”.
“Why don’t we have more progressive politicians here in the EU also taking TikTok seriously, and putting effort into it, in order to grow their own popularity and ideas?”, she asked.
But Robert Taylor issued a stark warning about the app, owned by Chinese company ByteDance.
“It’s a platform that is designed to promote anti-Western disinformation”, he said.
The panel also discussed how social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has transformed since being bought by Elon Musk, and how many are moving to rival network Bluesky.
“What’s happening at the moment is that a lot of pro-European forces are leaving X, but then that’s giving more room to these far-right populists, people to spread their own views. So then we’re leaving people even more vulnerable to misinformation there”, said Boualam.
Other panellists shared concerns about people preferring to stay in their own comfort zones, only listening to what they wanted to hear.
“The problem is, like what happened on TV and radio, is that you are creating these echo chambers”, Taylor said.
Watch “Brussels, my love?” on the player above.
