Social-Media
More than 300,000 videos of election misinformation have been removed by TikTok
According to a Wednesday transparency report covering content from the second half of last year, TikTok removed over 340,000 videos in the US for breaking the platform's rules on election misinformation, manipulation, or disinformation.
As part of a wider effort to combat election and COVID-19 misinformation, TikTok announced that it would combine with fact-checking organizations. At the time of the announcement, the Trump administration and lawmakers were under immense pressure from TikTok for its alleged links to the Chinese government. Microsoft and Oracle were among some of the companies from ByteDance, a Chinese company, bidding for ownership of TikTok.
TikTok is a diverse, creative-expression-fueled global community. In a statement Wednesday, Michael Beckerman, TikTok's vice president and head of US public policy, said that we are working to maintain an environment where everyone feels safe to create, find community, and be entertained. Because it helps build trust and understanding with our community, we are committed to being transparent about how we keep our platform safe.
TikTok announced Wednesday that more than 441,000 videos were removed from the platform's recommendation algorithm, or the For You Page, for spreading misinformation, apart from the videos deleted for breaking election rules. TikTok rolled out an election guide powered by BallotReady, a voting information tool, shortly before the 2020 election. That guide was available on the Discover page, as well as videos, hashtags, and political accounts related to elections. They have visited it 18,000,000 times.
Over the course of the 2020 US election, TikTok also removed 1,750,000 accounts used "for automation." While it is not known whether any of the accounts were specifically used to amplify election-related content, it was important at this critical time to remove this set of accounts to safeguard the platform, the transparency report reads.
