Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna accused TikTok of election manipulation, a claim the Chinese-owned platform denies.
Margus Tsahkna, Estonia’s foreign minister, urged the EU to consider banning TikTok on Monday. He cited security risks and alleged disinformation spread by the app.
His statement followed TikTok’s brief US outage on Saturday. ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, missed a January 19th deadline to divest its US operations, a requirement of a US law upheld by the Supreme Court. The law aimed to address national security concerns about China’s involvement.
“Over the past years, we’ve seen TikTok spread disinformation and manipulate elections… A European TikTok ban needs consideration,” Tsahkna posted on X, citing “vast data collection” as a “serious security risk.”
In an interview with ERR, Tsahkna claimed TikTok interfered in “democratic processes,”
“Romania’s annulled presidential election first round, due to discovered Russian interference through a large online campaign, provides a clear example,” he told ERR.
However, investigations revealed that Romania’s pro-EU liberal party funded the TikTok campaign that allegedly boosted the first-round winner, right-wing anti-NATO candidate Calin Georgescu. Moscow denies election interference. TikTok similarly refutes the allegations, stating it monitors and removes content that “misleads people or manipulates our systems.”
Tsahkna argued that platforms like TikTok don’t offer balanced information, instead serving as tools for “biased content.”
“TikTok isn’t media; it’s a weapon of influence,” he declared. He also raised concerns about the app’s data collection practices, particularly given its Chinese ownership.
“The data could fall into Chinese authorities’ hands,” he warned, citing a report from Estonia’s Foreign Intelligence Service last year. The report claimed the platform collects information usable for intelligence gathering, blackmail, or cyberattacks.
US TikTok users regained access on Sunday after President-elect Donald Trump announced an executive order to reverse the shutdown and extend the compliance deadline by 90 days.
“I’m asking companies not to let TikTok stay dark!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. He proposed a US acquisition of a 50% stake in TikTok via a joint venture, to “protect our national security” and retain the app’s “hundreds of billions of dollars – maybe trillions” in US revenue.