(New York) TikTok intends to be more vigilant about the nature of political content published on the social network before the American legislative election on November 8.
Posted at 2:43 p.m.
Political advertisements have been banned on the platform since October 2019, but some advertisers managed to circumvent this ban by going through paid influencers during the 2020 election.
To remedy this, TikTok will raise awareness among creators directly and via the social network, and undertakes to remove any content uploaded by a creator and paid for by a political advertiser, indicated, in a message posted on the official site, Eric Han, content security manager for the United States.
As for content posted spontaneously by unpaid users, algorithms and TikTok employees ensure that it does not promote misinformation, harassment, hate messages and violent extremism.
The group also collaborates with external organizations that verify the reliability of content and alert it to videos containing false or erroneous assertions.
The subsidiary of the Chinese group ByteDance also intends to act as an educational tool and direct users seeking information on the ballot to external sources that it considers reliable.
TikTok has created, on its application, a platform dedicated to the American elections, which offers content relating to the modalities of the ballot, to the registration on the electoral lists, as well as to the candidates, and will post estimates on the evening of the results.
On Tuesday, Meta also announced its measures taken to facilitate access to verified practical information on the election as well as to combat misinformation and manipulation.
They are similar to those put in place during the 2020 elections, with a dedicated team.
In particular, Facebook will reject any attempt at misinformation about the terms of the ballot and will refuse any advertising encouraging people not to go to the polls or contesting the results of the ballot.