Glucksmann refuses to ‘play a role’ in Tik Tok, condemning foreign interference

Raphael Glucksmann, head of the PS-Place public list for the European elections, announced this on Tuesday. France 2 leaving the Chinese social network Tik Tok, refusing to “play a role” there while condemning foreign interference.

The man who headed the commission on foreign interference in Europe, particularly from Russia and China, has left the social network whose parent company is Chinese and where he had 80,000 followers.

“It’s a matter of consistency. This social network is a pump (of money, editor’s note) that is transferred to the service of the Chinese Communist Party. So I couldn’t imagine acting like a joke on Tik Tok by denouncing foreign interference,” he explained.

“Providing access to user data from around the world”

The short video platform, very popular among young people, is accused by its detractors of giving Chinese authorities access to user data from around the world, which the app categorically denies. The US, Canada, the European Union and the UK have banned the app on government devices.

Raphael Glucksmann also calculated that “yes, there will be interference” from foreigners during the European election campaign, and they “will favor those who serve Putin’s political interests, that is, the European far right.”

It will “not necessarily be voting day,” but with “the rise of polarization in an artificial way aimed at supporting extremes,” he warned, recalling that “the company of Vladimir Putin,” the leader of the Kremlin, was “destabilizing our democracies.”