Short-video sharing platform TikTok has been emphatic about avoiding political messaging on the platform.
Earlier this week, the company issued a statement on its commitment to election integrity, outlining plans to reduce election misinformation.
The company explained that part of its plans is to roll out a new Election Center feature while emphasizing that its existing ban on paid political ads remains in place. The ban includes any paid political sponsored content created by TikTok influencers. The ban comes ahead of the U.S. midterm election in November.
As part of these efforts, TikTok aims to host sensitization workshops with creators and talent agencies to help spread the message, said Eric Han, TikTok’s head of U.S. safety, during a briefing with reporters.
The Chinese company has increased efforts to wade off misinformation, particularly across countries where elections are taking place.
“We saw this as an issue in 2020,” Han said. “Once we find out about it … we will remove it from our platform.”
Legislators have continued to exert pressure on social media platforms to be more vigilant as a way of fighting off fake news and misinformation.
Just before the August 9th general elections in Kenya, TikTok held a similar workshop with media practitioners and content creators which was also used to spread peace messages across through influencers.
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