Social media app TikTok has announced today it is introducing new community guidelines in a bid to crackdown on certain content.
TikTok revealed that it consulted more than 100 organisations around the world, including IASP, GLAAD and Regional Safety Advisory Councils, and members of the community.
Their input helped strengthen the platform's rules and respond to new threats and potential harms.
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Some of the key changes are:
advancing rules for how TikTok treats synthetic media, which is content created or modified by AI technology;
adding 'tribe' as a protected attribute in hate speech and hateful behaviour policies;
more detail about TikTok’s work to protect civic and election integrity, including the approach to government, politician and political party accounts.
The new Community Guidelines will take effect on April 21.
In a statement, Julie de Bailliencourt, Global Head of Product Policy, TikTok said: “As part of this, for the first time, we're sharing TikTok's Community Principles to help people understand our decisions about how we work to keep TikTok safe and build trust in our approach.
“These principles are based on our commitment to uphold human rights and aligned with international legal frameworks.”
“These principles guide our decisions about how we moderate content, so that we can strive to be fair in our actions, protect human dignity, and strike a balance between freedom of expression and preventing harm.”
Over the coming months, TikTok will provide additional training to moderators in order to help enforce these updated rules and standards effectively as they start to roll out.
In the update, TikTok brought together in one place everything about rules and standards so that everyone from creators to researchers can get what they need, based on the feedback the app heard.
The app has overhauled how it organises rules categorically into different topic areas, (for example, Behaviour & Mental Health).
To do this, TikTok has laid out the four pillars of the approach to moderation:
remove violative content;
age-restrict mature content so it is only viewed by adults (18 years or older)
make content ineligible for recommendation in the For You feed that isn't appropriate for a broad audience;
empower the community with information tools and resources to stay in control of their experience.
Today's update to the Community Guidelines also expands on the enforcement strategy by:
Sharing more information about the actions we take against accounts that violate the rules,
Explaining the considerations taken into account when enforcing rules based on public interests, and the approach to content that critiques public figures.
Including more detail about TikTok uses informational labels, warnings, and opt-in screens.
Julie de Bailliencourt, Global Head of Product Policy, TikTok added: “We're proud to be sharing these refreshed Community Guidelines offering our community much more transparency about our rules and how we enforce them.
“It takes a whole village to keep people safe online, so we're grateful to everyone in the TikTok community and to all of the external experts who have contributed and continue to help us advance our rules and stay a step ahead of emerging threats.”
"We believe that everyone deserves to feel safe online, and that feeling safe is key to unlocking imagination and creative expression. That's why we continue to invest in our work to keep TikTok a safe, inclusive and authentic home for our global community, so that they can create, discover and connect."
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