Conference "TikTok: real danger or Western cabal against Beijing?", April 19 at 6:30 p.m.

Wednesday, April 19, 2023 from 6:30pm to 8:30pm
Auditorium de l'Inalco, 65 rue des Grands Moulins 75013
and live on Youtube
Entry by registration.

His meteoric rise is matched by the controversy he stirs up. The Tiktok social network, which boasts almost 2 billion users, is now threatened with a ban in the United States on the grounds of "national security". In Europe, investigations are multiplying, and the TikTok application has just been banned from the phones of employees of EU institutions.

Behind their ultra-dynamic, viral videos, TikTok and its Chinese parent company Bytedance are accused of encouraging Beijing to spy on Western populations. Worse, their algorithms are said to be aimed at perverting young people, and even serving the political interests of the Chinese government.

What are the arguments behind these accusations? How does Tiktok's algorithm differ from that of other platforms such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, which have also multiplied scandals in recent years? What credence can be given to Tiktok's claim that it "does not transmit any data to the Chinese government", while promising greater transparency and strict compartmentalization of stored data (Project Clover in Europe, Project Texas in the USA)?

With:

• Alain Wang: sinologist, teacher at École Centrale and former editor-in-chief of Asia Magazine
• Bernard Benhamou: Secretary General of the Institut de la Souveraineté Numérique, expert on the Internet and its governance (he founded the Proxima Mobile portal, Europe's first mobile services portal for citizens)
• Rayna Stamboliyska, specialist in uncertainty management and digital diplomacy, author of La face cachée d'Internet

Moderator:

• Baptiste Fallevoz: journalist with Asialyst and France 24. Former correspondent in China.

Co-organizers: Inalco and Asialyst.com, the news and analysis website on all of Asia
Contact: contact@asialyst.com