On our vergecast interview series, editor-in-chief Nilay Patel and Silicon Valley editor Casey Newton spoke with Alex Stamos. Stamos, former chief security officer for Facebook, is director of the Stanford Internet observatory.

Stamos recently co-authored an op-ed in the Washington Post about Chinese propaganda around the novel coronavirus on us social media platforms. On the show, he discusses how companies still allow Chinese state media ads on their platforms.

Tiktok platform that has gained popularity since the last election is TikTok. Platform has gained popular in recent years. Stamos was asked about potential interference from bad actors on these platforms.

Tiktok is starting to deal with this stuff. They have to work within the strictures of a Chinese company. They also have a difficult disinformation problem.

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The conversation is a lightly edited excerpt from the conversation. Below is a heavily edited stretch stretch stretch of audio. The conversation was about when it happened.

I do n’t know about a decisive player in the election, but is it possible that’s sort of the disinformation system that surprises everyone this year?.

I want to one, drive divisions in American society,’ he says. He also wants to support Donald Trump again. He says he does n’t want to support Trump.

The best way to support Trump’s election is to peel off Bernie voters away from Biden. There are Bernie voters on TikTok and Instagram. They’re starting from scratch.

People who are going to TikTok are concerned that it’s owned by a Chinese company, that’s interference there?. Nilay Patel:”they are, like you said,”are they very legit”.

I do n’t know of any examples where they’ve been overridden, but I would n’t know either. So I think they have to be concerned about issues there.

I would not see TikTok us enforcing their disinformation rules against a Chinese state media, that kind of thing thing thing. I think where that’s going to be more relevant is around whether or not they enforce the rules against Chinese actors.