• gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    The report says (I’m paraphrasing), “There have been claims China has used TikTok to influence elections. We conclude that’s possible.” It doesn’t say they did do it, it says they could do it, but the headline says they did do it.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      No need to paraphrase, here’s the quote.

      China is demonstrating a higher degree of sophistication in its influence activity, including experimenting with generative AI. TikTok accounts run by a PRC propaganda arm reportedly targeted candidates from both political parties during the U.S. midterm election cycle in 2022.

      This clearly says that United States intelligence has reports that TikTok accounts run by the Chinese government were used to attempt to influence 2022 elections in the USA. Is that not what the headline says?

      Use of the word “Reportedly”, in the context of this threat assessment, means that the agency has evaluated the reports, and while they have not confirmed them, they could not be dismissed either and were found them compelling enough to be included in the assessment. They are not suggesting here that some guy on the internet made the claim and there’s no other support for it.