COMPUTATIONAL PROPAGANDA ON TikTok AS THE 21st CENTURY PROPAGANDA MODEL

Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman wrote an institutional analysis called Propaganda Model that
explains the role of mass media in spreading symbols and messages to the general populace under
class and power interests requiring systemic propaganda that needs consideration of 5 filters: (1)
ownership, (2) advertising, (3) dependence, (4) flak, and anti-communism. Until the emerging of
the internet led us to social media features that allow the users to interact socially and artificially.
Social media formats are also increasingly diverse and innovative, such as TikTok which was
originally released as a music video content platform, and now it’s a place for promotion,
information, suggestion, and opinion encouragement content. TikTok content is easily spread
across social media because of the ease of download, upload, and access. This study will elaborate
on the ease and massiveness of TikTok’s access to the Propaganda Model’s filters to see the current
propaganda system mobilization as computational propaganda. The characteristics of
computational propaganda are: (1) automation, (2) scalability, (3) anonymity. As a system that
makes the public vulnerable to get in the involvement, it’s necessary to form an attitude to deal
with it. Therefore, this study offers Noam Chomsky’s idea regarding Intellectual Responsibility as
the final contemplation.