Today, I will discuss a social media application that has become a societal issue...

TikTok is famous for its live broadcasts these days.

Launched in China in 2016, TikTok was later taken over by global investors, becoming a billion-dollar company. For those unfamiliar, the app allows users to create and share short videos and live broadcasts with background music. Anyone with a smartphone and internet access can use this app from anywhere in the world to live stream and share content instantly.

The use of TikTok increased among people confined to their homes after the coronavirus outbreak.

According to the Digital World Report published in April 2023 by WeAreSocial, there are 58.65 million social media users in Turkey, spending an average of 2 hours and 49 minutes daily on these platforms. TikTok's user count has reached 30 million.

TikTok users are categorized into various groups based on their content (food, travel, sports, etc.). Of course, the amount of advertising revenue they generate is significant. If you earn 10 TL from an advertiser, you make 50 TL from a content creator or broadcaster. Platform officials see these users but they do not intervene, who constitute less than 1% of the total user base. Yet, there's a win-win situation. These individuals also have a large audience. Don't assume the content is enlightening or informative. It's more about who's revealing what, who's fighting whom, and who's challenging whom.

Live broadcasts are opened every hour to stay on top, involving dancing, suggestive talks, and mafia-like fights for gifts and tokens.

Businesspeople looking to launder money send funds disguised as gifts during these popular characters' live broadcasts.

There's also a situation with gifts. If purchased from phone stores, a 30% cut is taken. If bought directly through TikTok, only 15-20% is deducted by TikTok.

Prosecutors are aware

Now, people with unaccounted-for wealth send tokens or gifts to popular characters on TikTok. A deal is made with these characters beforehand. TikTok takes a portion, and the broadcaster takes another. The rest is returned to the person who sent the money under the guise of gifts. Broadcasters feeding on this money continue these transactions daily.

Another money laundering method on the app involves gifts sent to popular characters during live broadcasts, but this time the source is different: stolen credit cards worldwide, also known as "card cracking."

Credit card thieves use stolen information to buy "coins" on the app, which are then systematically distributed by a single user.

Another method is the chargeback system. User A sends money to User B, then claims to the bank that it was sent by mistake or by an unaware child, getting a refund. However, TikTok is unaware of this scheme and credits the user's account. The withdrawal isn't detected immediately, often discovered by TikTok months or years later.

TikTok is one of the most dynamic apps using artificial intelligence. The number of employees working for TikTok is just 10% of that in other apps. Therefore, not every live broadcast can be monitored.

Dear friends, do not underestimate this system I am talking about.

We're talking about hundreds of millions of Turkish Liras. You can see how ordinary citizens quickly become rich through this platform. You'll see children and unqualified individuals suddenly owning luxury homes and cars, all earned through broadcasts.

It's a bottomless pit... However, the prosecutor's office and the Police Cyber Crimes unit are aware of the situation. I'm not in favor of banning it, but there needs to be both regulation and integration of the app within legal frameworks.