The Czech Republic Was Among the First Countries to Officially Identify TikTok as a Risk

In this interview, Czech expert ADAM ZBIEJCZUK speaks not only about foreign influence through social media, but also about how well-planned social media campaigns can lead to real electoral success.

- Which social media platforms are most widely used by residents of your country? And what factors influence people’s choice of these platforms?

A.Z. - In the Czech Republic, Meta is definitely the leading platform, with Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp widely used across all demographics. Facebook is used more by older people and is the number one social network among those aged 40 and over, while Instagram is the leading social media platform among people under 40. Of course, there is a lot of overlap.

WhatsApp is the number one chat platform for almost everyone. There are, of course, users of Signal, Telegram, and other platforms, but pretty much everybody has WhatsApp. Some people use other platforms as well, for different purposes.

Other platforms are also popular, of course. TikTok is one of them, although it is no longer growing as much and is used mainly by younger audiences. X, formerly Twitter, is still popular, but has probably lost some of its previous popularity. Twitter alternatives such as Bluesky and Mastodon are used by a small minority, with only a few users. LinkedIn is also quite popular, with around 800,000 users (from the Czech Republic), who use it for professional networking. So, it is still growing and gaining traction.

Snapchat and Pinterest are also somewhat under the radar, but both are still used by more than a million people on a monthly basis. However, people tend to use Instagram and TikTok first and foremost, and then Snapchat as well.
Snapchat is typically used by younger generations. Pinterest is more popular among women, but its users span all generations, from the youngest to the older age groups.
We also have a Czech platform that is trying to reinvent itself. Lidé.cz is its name, but it hasn't been particularly successful so far. It is more of a discussion platform for commenting on articles published by major media outlets. So, we'll see how it develops.

- Who is currently winning the competition for public attention: traditional media (television, online/print media) or social networks? Which communication channels do the government, opposition groups, and civil society representatives prefer to use when addressing the public, especially during critical periods such as elections, political and other crises, or when sharing urgent news?

A.Z.- The answer would differ depending on which groups we are talking about, as it largely depends on age. Among younger users, social media is definitely more widely used than traditional media. However, the importance of the main television channels, whether public television, Czech Television, or major commercial stations such as Nova, should not be underestimated.

Television is still very important. The decline of print newspapers is evident, and readership figures are shrinking. I think that people under 40 basically no longer read newspapers. Their online platforms, such as iDNES, Mladá Fronta DNES, and others, still belong to major media houses and have a lot of influence. There are also smaller independent newspapers with online editions that may be important as well, but they usually make a lot of use of social media.

As for the government, I would say this is also changing, with some politicians using social media extensively.

Our current Prime Minister, Andrej Babiš, from the ANO party (Action of Dissatisfied Citizens – Ed.), is not among the youngest politicians, but he is very skillful at using social media, and this has played a significant role in his success.

However, the changes introduced last year, which made political and social issue advertising unavailable on Facebook and Google, meant that politicians had to change their strategies and tactics, as they could no longer purchase ads. Instead, they have to rely more on organic reach and creating viral content to saturate the information space. In my opinion, this unfortunately makes things more complicated for democratic parties, because they either have to push their messaging to the extreme, as extreme content, whatever its nature, tends to gain traction by appealing to anger and emotions. If you want to take a more pragmatic stance or communicate a calmer message, it is difficult to gain traction with the algorithms. And, of course, even if official political advertising is banned, those who use troll farms are not affected by these restrictions. So, I think this is one of those cases where, although the regulation was introduced in good faith, I'm reluctant to say that it has had positive effects in practice.

- Which groups (government officials, political party leaders, civil society organizations) are the most active users of social media in your country? For whom has social media become a primary tool of communication?

A.Z.- I think the situation is quite different from one politician to another. It doesn't really depend on the political party, but rather on the individual politician.

Some of them are very successful. I mentioned Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, but there are also others, including politicians from more anti-establishment parties, such as Tomio Okamura of the SPD party (Freedom and Direct Democracy – Ed.), a nationalist party. He has also been very successful on social media, which is a major communication channel for him.

On the other side of the political spectrum, we have a young politician from the Christian Democratic Party, Jan Grolich, who is now the party's chairman. He recently won a Senate election, largely thanks to his online campaign, particularly his use of Instagram. Before entering politics, he was a stand-up comedian, which probably makes it easier for him to fully unleash the power of social media through humor. So, that's a good example.

There were local elections here in the Czech Republic quite recently, and some of the local results are thanks to the use of social media. The Green Party, which is not a big party in the Czech Republic, gained traction in the two largest cities, Prague and Brno, also thanks to social media.

So, it depends on who is in charge of each campaign in each city. Even within the same party, some politicians rely more on traditional media, while others rely on social media. I would say this is true across the entire political spectrum. Younger politicians tend to rely more on social media, but, as I mentioned, our Prime Minister is an example of an older-generation politician who has also been very successful in this regard.

- How does your country experience Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) and other forms of public opinion manipulation in practice? What role do social networks play in these hybrid attacks and in efforts to counter them?

A.Z.- I think opinions on this issue differ. There are plenty of people who blame Russian influence, particularly the use of troll farms and social media, for destabilizing the political situation. However, there are very few documented cases where you can actually point to concrete evidence and say, "Here, we caught them red-handed, and we have proof."

Of course, we have institutions that are supposed to investigate these issues. These include BIS (the Security Information Service - Ed.), and NÚKIB (the National Cyber and Information Security Agency - Ed.)
The Czech Republic was among the first countries to officially identify TikTok as a risk.

So, if you are someone who has access to security information, or if you are in charge of an institution or company dealing with such information, you should take extra precautions. For example, you should not install TikTok on the same phone that you use to access security or potentially vulnerable information.

On the other hand, I believe that many politicians from what is now the opposition, who were in power until recently, tended to downplay the issue. The institutions that the government was supposed to establish to monitor such foreign influence more effectively never really gained sufficient authority. And in the current government, there are people whom many of its opponents believe have ties to Russian disinformation circles. So they are certainly unlikely to do much to address the problem. But, as I mentioned, there are very few documented cases in which a clear connection can be proven. And it is true that, as in other countries, we are capable of developing our own disinformation networks, driven either by financial or political interests. And the fact that some disinformation campaigns or heated debates on issues such as immigration, the war in Ukraine, and other topics sometimes align with Russian interests does not necessarily mean that they are funded by Russia. It simply plays into Russia's hands. We shouldn't assume that Russian special services are behind everything, because unfortunately, usually we are doing it to ourselves.

This video was produced with the financial support of the European Union and the German Marshall Fund of the United States Transatlantic Foundation (GMF TF). Its contents are the sole responsibility of the “Region” Research Center and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or the GMF TF.