KO MP Roman Giertych believes that the TikTok platform promoted right-wing content 5 times more often than others during the election campaign, which indicates that the Chinese manipulated our campaign. The politician informed that he will apply to the ABW on Thursday for a response as to whether this is true.
The politician also added that the ABW should immediately secure the application of PiS MP Dariusz Matecki, “which was delivered by PiS to all members of PiS electoral commissions.”
The findings of Global Witness, an international NGO dealing with human rights issues, were reported on Thursday by “Gazeta Wyborcza”. As we read, the organization conducted research on the Chinese platform TikTok, which consisted of setting up several new accounts on the platform for various fictitious users and checking what content was offered to them. The research indicated a clear dominance of right-wing content – in the case of the elections in Poland supporting the right-wing candidate for president Karol Nawrocki – over any other content with a political tinge.
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On Thursday, KO MP and lawyer Roman Giertych commented on the information presented by “GW”. “Today's +Gazeta Wyborcza+ presents research by the international organization Global Witness, which shows that the TikTok platform promoted far-right content five times more often in the campaign than all others. A similar scenario occurred in Romania. This indicates one thing. The Chinese (or the Chinese on behalf of the Russians) manipulated our campaign. We cannot leave it like this. Today I will apply to the ABW for an immediate answer as to whether this is true,” he wrote on X.
Giertych added that information about irregularities in the reports of electoral commissions is coming from all over the country. “The ABW should immediately secure Mr. Matecki's application, which was delivered by PiS to all!!! members of the electoral commissions from PiS. We know that this application +verified+ election certificates. It did this completely illegally. The question is whether the application had other instructions for the commission members. In a situation where the exit poll indicates values different than the protocols, special care should always be taken when examining the validity of elections,” he emphasized.
PiS MP Dariusz Matecki posted instructions on Sunday on X on how to verify certificates of the right to vote. He appealed to members of the Election Control Movement, who sit on election commissions, to check the document using a special application. “Trusting them that they will not try to cheat is like believing in Putin's good intentions,” Matecki added.
Giertych appealed to report all cases of election fraud or irregularities to his law firm. “After receiving the reports, I will consider whether to submit an election protest to the Supreme Court,” he added.
The content that is displayed to TikTok users is selected based on an algorithm that analyzes what interests a given user and suggests similar content. That is why the study was conducted on new accounts, in the case of which the algorithm has not yet “learned” what content to suggest to them.
Global Witness conducted a study analyzing political content related to the Polish election campaign for three new accounts. During a 10-minute browsing session on each account, TikTok displayed more than five times more content supporting Karol Nawrocki than Rafał Trzaskowski. Of the 48 TikTok posts analyzed, 18 were against Trzaskowski, 4 – in support of him. Of the remaining posts, 21 supported Nawrocki, and 5 – were against him.
“Of the 61 posts that could be identified as having a political tone, two thirds (67%) promoted or shared far-right or right-wing nationalist content, while one third (33%) promoted or shared centrist and left-wing content,” the Gazeta reports.
As added, Global Witness conducted similar analyses during the recent presidential elections in Romania, and they produced a similar result as in Poland. Due to doubts about the possibility of foreign interference in the elections – including through social media campaigns – at the end of last year in Romania the entire electoral process was invalidated and new elections were held.
In the first round of the invalidated elections, first place was unexpectedly taken by the far-right candidate Calin Georgescu, whose candidacy – due to doubts about his online campaign – was rejected in the repeat elections.
On Wednesday, the head of the Internal Security Agency, Rafał Syrysko, presented information to the parliamentary committee for special services on the counterintelligence protection of the presidential elections. “The Internal Security Agency has done a colossal job in the counterintelligence protection of the presidential elections,” said the head of the committee, Marek Biernacki (PSL-TD).
In an interview with PAP, he added that the members of the commission were presented with “the entire counterintelligence protection, there was talk of an attempt to interfere in Polish elections by various – even foreign – entities”. Without disclosing the details of specific cases, he only noted that these were high-profile cases, also presented in the media, and the services reacted to them very quickly. (PAP)
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