A phone with the Tik Tok app opened. (Credit: Loic Venance/AFP)
BEIRUT – The TikTok pedophile ring, involving nearly 30 individuals responsible for luring around 30 children through the app for sexual abuse, filming, and blackmail, which shook Lebanese society in early May, sparked outcry from many citizens and parents calling for the government to ban the app in Lebanon.
But is banning the app doable?
Caretaker Telecommunications Minister Johnny Corm said last Wednesday that his ministry has the technical capability of blocking the app but only if a judicial decision is made in this regard, then the telecoms ministry would be responsible for implementing this decision.
'In the cyber world, there are always ways to bypass bans'
"We have two potential ways to stop the usage of TikTok in Lebanon: If TikTok as a company stops accepting requests for downloads from Lebanon, as per the Lebanese government’s request, and the company won't comply because that would lead to financial losses. The other way is if Lebanon blocks its servers from reaching TikTok," cybersecurity expert Majd Dhainy explained to L'Orient Today.
"Technically, if Lebanon wants to ban any user trying to use TikTok in its territory, it should block the connection from reaching TikTok’s servers. This is easy and doable when you have cyber experts because requests from us to TikTok’s servers pass through Lebanon’s infrastructure via internet service providers or telecom companies like Ogero, all within the government’s infrastructure. So, technically, the government can add certain rules and regulations, saying that when it detects any traffic heading from Lebanon towards TikTok’s servers, it can block it, and all are managed by the government," Dhainy said.
But can this be bypassed?
"In the cyber world, there are always ways to bypass those measures; nothing is 100 percent secure. Malicious actors or citizens can try to change their geolocation or use VPNs or proxies, so they would contact a server outside Lebanon, and this server would connect to TikTok," Dhainy explained.
"In TikTok, however, there are certain functionalities like going live, for example, that need a stable and fast internet connection, which won't be the case if a proxy server is being used. So, it might hinder its effectiveness for users inside Lebanon who might not benefit from it or use it as easily," Dhainy said.
"Every company can change its locations and IP addresses to potentially allow users from banned countries to access it," Dhainy told L'Orient Today.
'Unlikely'
Despite these technical aspects, a source at the Justice Ministry told L’Orient Today, "It’s unlikely that the Ministry of Justice will go forward with an official ban on TikTok. Anyway, no one has submitted an official complaint to the ministry that would require action."
"TikTok is an international company, and many businesses in Lebanon use it to market their products and services, enhancing their work. Therefore, closing the entire app and banning it in the country because a group of criminals were active on it does not make sense," a judicial source in Lebanon told L’Orient Today Wednesday.
"Let’s assume that tomorrow a criminal lured a person through Facebook to meet up with him and killed him. We have heard of such stories happening. Does that mean that the Lebanese judiciary would then be expected to ban Facebook in the country?" the source concluded.
Lebanon to cooperate with regional TikTok office
For his part, Lebanon’s caretaker Information Minister Ziad Makary said that his ministry will "cooperate with the TikTok office in the Middle East and Turkey, whose team will soon visit Lebanon at the invitation of the ministry and in coordination with the Ministry of Telecommunications, to develop a joint action plan to monitor the application's content and mitigate the risks of offensive content, in addition to establishing ethical controls," according to a statement Saturday.
"Educational workshops will be organized by experts, available to all interested media professionals and educational institutions on how to positively utilize this platform,” Makary concluded.
In March TikTok announced the launching of a global Youth Council along with Praesidio Safeguarding, a specialist online safety agency, and is comprised of 15 teens aged between 15 and 18 representing a range of communities and countries.
"The Youth Council has set out its priorities for 2024, which include a focus on teen well-being and inclusion to help ensure TikTok continues to be a safe and accessible space for young people to show up as who they are," TikTok said in a statement noting that the company has spoken to over 12,000 teens and their parents to further understand their concerns, and work alongside them to ensure that the app can be a safer space.
The TikTok pedophilia case came to light last Wednesday, when local media reported some of the details, following the decision of the parents of eight youngsters, more than a month ago, to lodge a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office against one of the suspects for the abuse suffered by their children.
Figures published in ByteDance’s advertising resources indicated that TikTok had 3.92 million users aged 18 and above in Lebanon in early 2024. In early 2024, 46.6 percent of TikTok’s ad audience in Lebanon was female, while 53.4 percent was male.