Kazakhstan discusses a possible blocking of TikTok or restriction of access to the platform. What is the motivation behind it and whether it is possible to apply existing laws to counter unlawful content is discussed here, in the story of CABAR.asia.
Internal reasons
On April 17, 2024, Nurken Khalykbergen, rector of Miras University, offered the members of parliament to block the TikTok social media platform in Kazakhstan. The social media is popular in Kazakhstan: the number of users in the country reached 14 million in 2024 with the population size 20.1 million people.
In his comments to CABAR.asia, Khalykbergen specified that content is not a problem, the problem is uncertainty as to whether the users are being manipulated.
“Do you know how these algorithms work? Why does TikTok apply restrictions to children based in China, and does not do it in other countries? Why does TikTok work only with the educational content in China, and provide access to all the s*it, including pornography, to the rest of the world? This communication channel must be blocked in full, or children’s access must be restricted,” Khalykbergen said.
According to him, it can be done easily by the IIN, i.e. individual identification number assigned to Kazakhstanis, and by means of mobile operators.
“Under the guise of struggling for the freedom of speech, you demonstrate that you do not care about your children. Do I speak about closing the media? I don’t. Do I offer to prohibit journalists to write stories? I don’t,” Khalykbergen said.
Member of Parliament Yerlan Sairov expressed his opinion about TikTok in public after the rector.
“TikTok distributes advertising of various games, online casinos, streams, even reels, filled with pornography, calls for suicide, defamation, and coarse language. Children not only watch them, but become victims of violence and gambling,” said Sairov on April 22, 2024.
Sairov urged the government to apply the recently passed law about online platforms and restrict or block their content on TikTok, which contradicts moral values or has a negative impact on children, and also to introduce a special children’s format of the social media, as practised in China.On the same day, minister of culture and information Aida Balaeva stated that the amount of unlawful content on TikTok increased.
“Many countries have to reject some social networks. Children watch them, and they can only hear rude words and fortunetellers ,” the minister said.
Aida Balaeva said that the issue should be solved comprehensively in response to journalists saying that restriction of social media is seen as a restriction of the freedom of speech. According to her, state bodies do not make decisions based on one fact only, they study the problem and then take measures. Balaeva said that the ministry studied the issue of TikTok blocking or restriction.
External circumstances
Discussions of a possible blocking of TikTok in Kazakhstan take place amid already introduced or planned bans on the platform in various countries of the world. Thus, on April 16, 2024, Russia’s Association of Professional Users of Social Media and Messengers asked the Roskomnadzor to consider a possibility of TikTok blocking. In its opinion, it would let Russian social media expand their audience.
On April 18, 2024, access to TikTok was blocked in Kyrgyzstan. The formal reason is to prevent harm to children’s health.
On April 24, 2024, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an act binding the Chinese owner of TikTok to sell the platform to the American owner until January 19, 2025. Otherwise, TikTok would be banned in the United States. According to American authorities, the social media poses a potential threat to the national security: the app can share location, personal habits and interests of Americans with the Chinese government.
According to official representatives of TikTok in Kazakhstan, the absolute priority of TikTok is to ensure safety of users, especially young ones. The social media platform makes much effort to ensure it, including removal of content violating the Community Guidelines. In 2023, TikTok removed over four million videos in Kazakhstan for violating the Guidelines.
“We work directly with the concerned authorities of Kazakhstan, including Ministry of Culture and Information and the Ministry of Interior Affairs. It should be noted that we have not received any requests for content removal related to safety of minor users in recent months. Millions of people in the country use TikTok on a daily basis to share their creativity, enrich their experiences and earn a living, and we hope that our local community will keep on using our platform,” social media administration said to the request of CABAR.asia.
Partial blocking instead of entire blocking
According to Gulmira Birzhanova, head of the legal service ‘Media Qoldau’, TikTok blocking can really happen as there is the relevant foreign experience that can be used as an argument.
“The argument related to children’s rights is used very well. Let’s recall cyberbullying amendments, draft law on mass media, which were used as a part of protection of children from harmful information,” she compared it to other ‘prohibition’ campaigns, and said, “As a lawyer, I do not see the need to block the social media platform.”
She explained her attitude by the fact that TikTok has guidelines on content removal in case of complaints; moreover, TikTok is a social media platform that is interested in collaborating with Kazakhstan.
“Unlawful content is available not only on TikTok, but also on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook,” Birzhanova said. “Let’s block them all if we are concerned about the safety of our minors.”
Instead of drastic measures, she offers to develop a mechanism that allows blocking unlawful content only. The mechanism is already envisaged by the law “On communications.” Besides, according to Tatyana Chernobil, adviser in international human rights law, the state demands that platform or mobile operators should partially block unlawful content.
“As far as I know, it would be quite difficult to do it technically for the state. If the platform refuses to restrict access to unlawful content or fails to do it without being properly notified, it is easier for the state to restrict access to the entire website or platform,” the expert said.
She reminded that the applicable law allows to restrict information that causes harm to interests of an individual, society, state.
“This is an addition to information violating the election law, promoting sexual exploitation of minors and child pornography, information disseminated to cyberbully children,” Chernobil said.
“Many social media platforms have a parental control function,” Gulmira Birzhanova said. “A parent must have their area of responsibility.”
Tatiana Chernobil finds it remarkable that the state shifts the need to hold “measures meant to raise awareness of children on a risk and threats of disseminated information, as well as to train parents to the skills of control of minors upon their receipt and use of information” on to NGOs and citizens. The state reserves the right to block, not to educate.
Should others expect the same?
When asked why they suggest shutting down TikTok, Birzhanova said that it is easier to do it now amid restrictions of access to the platform in the United States, Kyrgyzstan, European Union.
According to Tatiana Chernobil, different countries have different reasons for blocking TikTok. Most of them are censorship, and the state exceeding the limit of feasible constraints on the freedom to receive and disseminate information.
“It definitely can pose a risk to other social media or platforms because there are legal grounds for restrictions and blocking. It is like a gun hanging on the wall that will surely fire once,” Chernobil said.
Main illustration: freepik.com
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