China Daily’s Tiktok account back on platform but with West PH Sea-related content scrubbed

By Nikko Balbedina

Months after TikTok banned MediaUnlocked, an affiliate channel of the Chinese state-run media giant China Daily, the page has been reinstated with its original number of followers and likes. However, all content related to the West Philippine Sea has apparently been deleted.

In a video announcing the return of their Tiktok page, MediaUnlocked presenter Meng Zhe said the platform let them retain their 343,000 followers and 7.1 million likes but removed the account name, bio, and profile photo.

What the presenter failed to acknowledge is that TikTok has labeled the account with a “China state-controlled media” badge, which appears under the MediaUnlocked name on its home page and on every video.

While TikTok allowed the page to retain its followers and likes, it wiped the account’s username, bio, and profile photo, and added a label indicating it is operated by China’s government.

Xu Pan Yiru, another presenter for MediaUnlocked, explained that TikTok had removed all their videos related to the West Philippine Sea dispute due to “violations of community guidelines.”

The presenters then reiterated previous unfounded claims that their account’s initial removal was part of a supposed plot between the governments of the United States (US) and the Philippines to undermine Chinese sovereignty claims over the West Philippine Sea.

“The Philippine government rallied trolls to mass report us to get us banned,” Xu claimed, without basis.

Chinese-led  influence operations on Tiktok

Before their account was taken down, MediaUnlocked’s propaganda push thrived best on TikTok compared with other social media platforms.

However, a closer look at their followers list revealed that most were from Spanish-speaking regions and either had no posts or had posted content unrelated to the South China Sea dispute, suggesting these followers were acquired from online growth services.

This was mirrored by another account that China Daily had launched to try to work around Tiktok’s initial removal of the MediaUnlocked page. The replacement account named @qidimediaunlocked had questionably amassed more than 328,000 followers and 8 million likes despite having no content posted.

The second Tiktok page was also removed from the platform shortly.

PressOne.PH first encountered MediaUnlocked in March 2024 when it cropped up in its investigation of foreign influence operations in the Philippines.

MediaUnlocked had repeatedly and falsely portrayed the Philippines as the aggressors in their pro-China narrative.

In late February, MediaUnlocked uploaded a video accusing the Philippines of sending supposed maritime militia vessels disguised as fishermen to the Scarborough Shoal, which is located within the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone or EEZ.

MediaUnlocked posted an unfounded TikTok video accusing the Philippines of sending maritime militia disguised as fishermen to the Scarborough Shoal.

They uploaded a purported “exclusive” video claiming to show “Philippine provocation” and “illegal intrusion” near the shoal, while showing a Chinese Coast Guard ship harassing Filipino vessels and telling them to leave the “sea area of Huangyan Island of the People’s Republic of China.”

MediaUnlocked’s falsehood-ridden reporting of the West Philippine Sea dispute also caught the attention of Philippine news outlet Philstar.net.

CNN in the US later picked up PressOnePH’s analysis of MediaUnlocked’s use of artificial intelligence or AI on its Tiktok content. #PressOnePH