In preparation for the midterm elections in the United States
which will take place on November 8, TikTok has revealed new controls that would ban video makers from publishing paid political messages on the service. These new measures were disclosed on Wednesday, August 17. The information was conveyed in a blog post that was written and authored by Eric Han, who serves as the security manager for TikTok’s operations on this social network in the United States.
On the Chinese social network, it has been theoretically forbidden to purchase political advertisements since the year 2019, therefore the ban has already taken effect. However, during the campaign for president of the United States in 2020, several campaign teams got around the ban by paying social media influencers. “TikTok does not allow political ads, and that includes content for which influencers are paid,” Eric Han stated in his statement.
TikTok does not allow influencers to be paid for their content.” Because of this, the firm wants to close the gap by tightening controls and holding information sessions with talent agencies and producers to remind them of the guidelines for utilizing the social network.
Eric Han added that internal teams will monitor for signs that creators are being paid to post political content and that the company will also rely on media and partner reports to find infringing posts and remove them. In addition, the company will monitor for signs that creators are being paid to post content that is not related to politics. The intention is for all other political films to continue to be displayed in users’ posts so long as they are unpaid, do not actively disseminate misinformation, and are in compliance with the application’s rules for use.
Collaboration with organizations that conduct fact checks
In addition, TikTok is introducing a new section within its application that will be known as the “Elections center.” This section will compile information that is helpful for users of the internet regarding voting locations, candidates, and the election in general. “TikTok has collaborations with known fact-checking groups to help examine the veracity of information published in more than 30 languages,” adds Eric Han. These partnerships enable TikTok to assess the veracity of content published in more than 30 languages.” According to a report by the Bloomberg news agency, the press identified PolitiFact, Science Feedback, and Lead Stories as some of these organizations’ collaborators during a telephone discussion with the media.
After adjustments were made on Meta and Twitter, TikTok finally introduced its updated stats. On Tuesday, Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, announced that it will follow a method based on the same principles implemented in 2020. As part of this plan, it will prohibit political advertising from running new posts one week before the election. These processes had not made it feasible at the time to totally halt the flow of false information that had been disseminated at the time of the release of the results. Additionally, they had not made it possible to prevent the assault on the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
A week ago, Twitter made the announcement that it will be implementing a moderation policy ahead of the midterm elections. The social network intends to, once again, display labels in front of some tweets that are deceptive and will also insert trustworthy information into the threads of some individuals.
