Georgia's Occupied Regions No Longer 'independent units' on TikTok

"The shortcoming on the social platform TikTok has been corrected and the occupied regions of Georgia are no longer referred to as so-called “independent units” on the website," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia reports, adding that the Ministry actively worked with the Chinese in order to eliminate the error. 

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our embassy in China started working on this issue as soon as the information was spread. Meetings were held in Tbilisi and Beijing, and our Ambassador to China met with the company's management, during which they apologized for the shortcoming and promised to rectify it.

“The Foreign Ministry always reacts when Georgia’s occupied regions are identified as independent entities, and if an incorrect definition is used by certain persons or organizations referring to Georgia’s occupied regions. The error always gets eliminated with efforts of the ministry and embassies. Protection of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is the main priority of our activity,” the Ministry said.

Abkhazia and South Ossetia have been added to the list of countries/regions of the world by the TikTok social network by May 13.

These places are considered by Georgia and the vast majority of UN countries to be part of Georgia's sovereign territory, which is under military occupation by the Russian Federation.

TikTok - a social network that allows users to share short videos - is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance. Nor does China recognize the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

By Ana Dumbadze 

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