{"id":1948155,"date":"2023-06-15T14:05:02","date_gmt":"2023-06-15T18:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tiktok-to-sponsor-journalism-conference-amid-espionage-and-propaganda-allegations\/"},"modified":"2023-06-15T14:08:14","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T18:08:14","slug":"tiktok-to-sponsor-journalism-conference-amid-espionage-and-propaganda-allegations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tiktok-to-sponsor-journalism-conference-amid-espionage-and-propaganda-allegations\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok sponsors journalism conference amidst espionage and propaganda claims."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ftiktok-to-sponsor-journalism-conference-amid-espionage-and-propaganda-allegations%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1948155&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<h2>TikTok Sponsors Journalism Conference Amid Controversy<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>TikTok is sponsoring a journalism conference for a media watchdog group that aims to &#8220;fortify journalism&#8217;s role in a free society,&#8221; even as the social media giant comes under fire for helping China spy on journalists and disseminate pro-Beijing propaganda.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/winred.tomcotton.com\/tom-cotton\/defend-scotus-ads-beacon?utm_source=rc&#038;utm_medium=beaconads&#038;utm_campaign=2023maybeaconscotus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/winred.tomcotton.com\/tom-cotton\/defend-scotus-ads-beacon?utm_source=rc&#038;utm_medium=beaconads&#038;utm_campaign=2023maybeaconscotus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>The GlobalFact 10 Summit<\/h3>\n<p>The Poynter Institute, which operates the liberal fact-checking site PolitiFact, is organizing GlobalFact 10, which will take place in Seoul starting June 27. TikTok is one of the corporate sponsors for the three-day &#8220;global fact-checking summit&#8221; and is sponsoring a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tiktok-to-sponsor-journalism-conference-amid-espionage-and-propaganda-allegations\/\" title=\"TikTok sponsors journalism conference amidst espionage and propaganda claims.\">pre-event cocktail reception<\/a>, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/event\/globalfact-10-the-10th-global-fact-checking-summit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">an itinerary<\/a> of the summit.<\/p>\n<p>TikTok executives will speak on panels about the company&#8217;s efforts to counter disinformation on its platform. Its &#8220;publisher education team&#8221; will hold a &#8220;fireside chat&#8221; to teach journalists &#8220;best practices for building a TikTok presence and creating engaging content.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, is sponsoring the event as it tries to win allies in its fight against a U.S. ban over its ties to China. American officials say the video app poses a national security threat because the Chinese government could easily use TikTok to spy on its users and push pro-Beijing propaganda to American audiences. TikTok, which has hired an army of lobbyists, has so far avoided a ban, thanks in large part to reluctance from Democrats who see the site as a political asset.<\/p>\n<p>The Poynter summit, which will be attended by <em>Washington Post<\/em> fact-checker Glenn Kessler, will give TikTok and other tech companies an opportunity to promote their platforms and tout their fight against disinformation.<\/p>\n<p>Five TikTok executives, including the company&#8217;s global policy lead for harmful misinformation, will conduct a June 29 seminar on TikTok&#8217;s &#8220;approach to countering misinformation.&#8221; Members of TikTok\u2019s &#8220;publisher education team&#8221; will also appear at a seminar with Poynter Institute executive Alex Mahadevan on the issue of &#8220;building a TikTok presence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s a remarkable arrangement for a media watchdog that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/mission-vision\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">claims<\/a> to be a champion for &#8220;freedom of expression, civil dialogue, and compelling journalism that helps citizens participate in healthy democracies.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h3>Controversies Surrounding TikTok<\/h3>\n<p>The Justice Department is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2023\/03\/17\/us\/politics\/tik-tok-spying-justice-dept.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">investigating<\/a> ByteDance after employees at the company obtained location data on two American journalists who reported about the company&#8217;s links to the Chinese government.<\/p>\n<p>And a former ByteDance executive <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/china-has-supreme-access-to-tiktok-former-exec-alleges\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has alleged<\/a> that Chinese officials have &#8220;supreme access&#8221; to TikTok&#8217;s algorithm. The former employee, Yintao Yu, claimed in a lawsuit that a special unit of Chinese Communist Party members at ByteDance oversees the content on TikTok in order to advance &#8220;core Communist values.&#8221; Yu claims to have witnessed the ByteDance team promoting anti-Japanese content and demoting posts that support pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n<p>It is unclear how much money TikTok is giving Poynter for the conference, but TikTok has been a major funder of the media think tank for a number of years. According to Poynter&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.poynter.org\/major-funders\/#1632843888743-52666069-9ec9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">website<\/a>, TikTok has donated at least $50,000 to the think tank. Other major funders include Facebook, Microsoft, AARP, and the philanthropic networks of Democratic donors Pierre Omidyar and Craig Newmark.<\/p>\n<p>TikTok&#8217;s donations to Poynter go to help PolitiFact &#8220;continue to fact-check elected officials and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/activist-who-held-the-five-aborted-babies-explains-why-he-will-never-be-the-same\/\" title=\"Activist Who Held \u2018The Five\u2019 Aborted Babies Explains Why He Will \u2018Never Be The Same\u2019\u00a0\">hold government officials accountable<\/a>,&#8221; according to PolitiFact&#8217;s website. Conservatives have criticized PolitiFact over its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/taxpayer-dollars-flowed-to-media-company-now-under-fbi-investigation\/\" title=\"Taxpayer Dollars Flowed to Media Company Now Under FBI Investigation\">perceived liberal bias<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/winred.tomcotton.com\/tom-cotton\/defend-scotus-ads-beacon?utm_source=rc&#038;utm_medium=beaconads&#038;utm_campaign=2023maybeaconscotus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/winred.tomcotton.com\/tom-cotton\/defend-scotus-ads-beacon?utm_source=rc&#038;utm_medium=beaconads&#038;utm_campaign=2023maybeaconscotus\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h3>Controversies Surrounding PolitiFact<\/h3>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/facebook-bans-gop-account-allows-inflammatory-dnc-ads\/\" title=\"Facebook bans GOP account, allows inflammatory DNC ads\">fact-check site<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/politics\/liberal-fact-check-of-teachers-union-boss-randi-weingarten-gets-fact-checked\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">was itself fact-checked<\/a> last month after it defended teachers&#8217; union boss Randi Weingarten over her support for school lockdowns during the coronavirus pandemic. A <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/media\/politifact-pants-on-fire\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">analysis<\/a> found that the vast majority of PolitiFact&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/facebook-admits-in-court-that-fact-checks-are-just-opinion\/\" title=\"Facebook Admits in Court That 'Fact Checks' Are Just Opinion\">fact-check articles<\/a> were aimed at Republicans. And in 2021, PolitiFact <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politifact.com\/li-meng-yan-fact-check\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">retracted<\/a> an article that dismissed as &#8220;inaccurate and ridiculous&#8221; the theory that coronavirus originated in a Chinese medical lab.<\/p>\n<p>Poynter and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TikTok sponsors GlobalFact 10, a journalism conference by Poynter Institute, aiming to strengthen journalism&#8217;s role in a free society. However, TikTok faces criticism for aiding China in spying on journalists and spreading pro-Beijing propaganda. Poynter Institute operates PolitiFact, a liberal fact-checking site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":155,"featured_media":1948156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4856,8299,12646,5157,4488,16098,6248],"class_list":["post-1948155","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-claims","tag-conference","tag-espionage","tag-journalism","tag-propaganda","tag-sponsors","tag-tiktok"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/155"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1948155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1948155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1948156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1948155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1948155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1948155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}