TikTok is pushing the app to improve its information about the upcoming US presidential election, it said on Wednesday.
The company will expand the landing page on how polls work and why they can be trusted and run new in-feed videos about media literacy. It will also increase security requirements for verified accounts of politicians and governments in the United States. Vice President Kamala Harris, former President Donald J. Trump and his vice-presidential nominees each have TikTok accounts as of two weeks ago, A sharp pivot from last yearWhile most American politicians avoided the application.
The efforts come as TikTok cautiously acknowledges that it has become the largest source of news for millions of Americans. Presidential election than it was in 2020. It joins other big tech companies like Meta, Google and X that must regularly grapple with how their platforms handle election-related content. But TikTok faces an extra layer of scrutiny, as it is owned by Chinese company ByteDance and faces the prospect of its app being banned as soon as January over national security concerns.
“Young people are going to TikTok and other vertical video platforms for news more than ever,” said Alex Mahadevan, director of MediaWise at the Poynter Institute, which worked with TikTok to produce a series of videos on media literacy that will begin airing soon. For users. “As of late, TikTok is investing heavily in media literacy and fact-checking.”
The US government has expressed some concern that TikTok could jeopardize future elections. The Justice Department said in July that China could direct ByteDance and TikTok to manipulate videos served to Americans to “undermine trust in our democracy and increase social division.” Signed by President Biden Landmark Law in April which will ban TikTok in the US in January unless ByteDance sells the app to a non-Chinese company.
BytDance and TikTok, which are challenging the law in court, said the US government has not shared evidence that the Chinese government manipulated TikTok videos viewed by Americans and that the technology that powers the app’s recommendations is based in and oversees the United States. Oracle, an American cloud computing company.
TikTok said in a release that its Election Center — a landing page that the app prompts users to visit when they search for election-related terms or watch race-related videos — has been viewed more than seven million times since it was introduced in January. has been visited. . TikTok developed the page in conjunction with Democracy Works, a nonpartisan nonprofit that helps voters find accurate information online.
It includes links to voting resources and a brief explanation of voting systems and how elections work, and will be updated with real-time results from The Associated Press in November of presidential, congressional and gubernatorial races, TikTok said.
The company said it has formed an internal 13-member US Elections Integrity Advisory Group, which includes experts on violent extremism and election and civil integrity, to “stress-test” its policies around hate speech or content generated by artificial intelligence and to plan. For circumstances that may affect social platforms during elections.
Most major social media companies Measured back Protection around disinformation and downsized teams working on elections. Mr. Mahadevan, whose MediaWise group promotes media literacy across social platforms, said TikTok is unique in leaning into such efforts at this time.
“Media literacy resources are shrinking on Meta and potentially nonexistent on X, and they’re growing on TikTok,” he said.
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