TikToka short-form mobile video platform, announces the update of its Community Rules. The objective is guarantee the well-being of the more than one billion users of the platform. The transparency is one of the most important aspects for TikTok. These updates further clarify and define inappropriate behaviors and content that will be removed or deprecated in the feed for you. With it, TikTok strengthen your securitytrying to offer the community a space to create, connect and enjoy entertainment.
Building a secure entertainment platform
TikTok bets on the capacity for creative expression of users and for entertainment, within a safe and welcoming environment for the entire community. Therefore, the Community Rules They support this objective by defining a set of guidelines that allow users to understand what type of content they should report to the platform. These policies are designed to encourage an experience that prioritizes securityinclusion and authenticity and take into account new trends or threats observed on the Internet and on the platform. TikTok also listens to user feedback, from our European Security Advisory Council and from other experts in areas such as digital security, content moderation, health and wellness, or adolescent development.
Some of the main updates that TikTok has announced, and that it will apply in the coming weeks, are the following:
- Policy reinforcement against dangerous challenges: TikTok is still working. as announced, to prevent this type of content, including suicide hoaxes, from spreading within the platform. This goal was already considered a priority and covered under the suicide and self-harm policies, but will now be highlighted in a separate and even more detailed category to make it easier for the community to familiarize themselves with these guidelines.
- Broadening the Focus on Eating Disorders: Although TikTok already removes content that promotes eating disorders, with this update to its rules it will also begin to remove the promotion of unhealthy or disordered eating habits. These changes have been made after consulting different experts, researchers and doctors. The goal of this measure is to recognize more symptoms, such as over-exercising or fasting for a short duration, which are often little-known signs of a potential problem. As this is a nuanced area, TikTok says it is working tirelessly to train its teams to be prepared to identify inappropriate content within this field.
- Greater transparency about the types of hate ideologies prohibited on the platform: this includes the deadnamingthe misgendering or misogyny, as well as content that supports or promotes conversion therapy programs. Although these ideologies have long been banned on TikTok, creators and various social organizations insist on the importance of being explicit in the Community Rules referring to this topic.
- Extension of policies to protect the security, integrity, availability and reliability of the platform: This section includes the prohibition of unauthorized access to TikTok, as well as its content, accounts, systems or data of TikTok, and the prohibition of the use of the platform to perpetrate criminal activities. The platform says that in addition to educating users on ways to detect, avoid and report suspicious activity, this year it is opening state-of-the-art cyber issue monitoring and response centers in Washington DC, Dublin and Singapore. TikTok’s Fusion Center operations enable threat tracking and intelligence gathering, as the platform continues to work with industry-leading experts to improve its defenses.
In addition, the TikTok community can find more information about the content categories that will not be recommended in the For You feeds. As TikTok says, the ability to discover new ideas, creators, and interests is part of what makes the platform unique. However, content that appears in the For You feed may come from a creator you don’t follow or relate to interests you haven’t previously identified with. Therefore, when the platform detects content that may be inappropriate for the general public, which includes from adolescents to the elderly, will work to eliminate them of your recommendation system.
In the coming weeks, all members of the community will be able to read these new updated rules when they open the app.
TikTok is committed to transparency with its community
The TikTok Community Guidelines apply to all users and all content on the platform. For this reason, with the aim of guaranteeing transparency with the users of its community and with other social agents, TikTok publishes quarterly reports on compliance with the Community Standards.
“We use a combination of technology and people to identify and eliminate violations of our Community Guidelines, and we will continue to train our automated systems and security teams to uphold our policies” says Cormac Keenan, Director of Trust & Safety at TikTok.
The last Community Standards Compliance report published, corresponding to the third quarter of 2021, shows that more than 91 million videos that violated the Community Guidelines were removed, which represents around 1% of all videos uploaded. Of those videos, 95.1% were removed before a user reported it, 88.8% before the video received views, and 93.9% within 24 hours of posting.
In this way, TikTok continues to improve its systems to detect and remove inappropriate content at the time of publication, such as those related to sexual or illegal activities. As a result, during the third quarter of 2021 the volume of automatic removals has increased compared to the previous ones, which demonstrates an improvement in the overall security of the platform and allows the TikTok team spend more time reviewing published content within a certain context or with nuances, such as hate speech, harassment and misinformation.
“We have taken significant steps to improve our policies and enforcement, including our effectiveness, speed and consistency, while recognizing that there is no finish line when it comes to keeping people safe. We are driven by our passion to help everyone have a safe and enriching experience on TikTok.”, Keenan concludes.