A TikTok function that enables customers to add one other individual’s audio to their movies is getting used to promote deceptive and dangerous content material about COVID-19 vaccines, a assume tank mentioned in a brand new report.
The London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue analysed 124 movies that used speech from 4 authentic TikTok movies, together with two that have been eliminated by the corporate for breaking its COVID misinformation guidelines, to push misinformation and stoke fears about vaccine side-effects. The 124 movies had greater than 20 million views.
“There’s a part of the content which is still able to travel,” mentioned Ciaran O’Connor, an analyst on the counter-extremism assume tank. He likened the unfold of misinformation although TikTok’s “Sounds” function to WhatsApp audio messages that proliferated throughout the pandemic.
Viral tendencies the place customers create their very own movies by riffing off the identical music or speech clip are a central a part of TikTok. The in style social video platform, which noticed explosive progress throughout the pandemic, mentioned it evaluations the audio of rule-breaking movies and will forestall these getting used as Sounds by different customers. It mentioned these circumstances have been attributable to human content material moderation errors. It additionally mentioned Sounds could be reported on the app.
Audio from one video of a person implying the COVID vaccine’s quick growth made it unsafe and making deceptive comparisons to different diseases has been utilized in greater than 4,500 movies, ISD discovered.
TikTok mentioned it had beforehand restricted the distribution of movies utilizing this Sound, quite than take away it utterly, because it was solely deemed to be probably deceptive. Even so, the highest 25 movies on the TikTok web page for this Sound have been seen a complete of 16.7 million occasions.
ISD discovered most of the movies used the Sound to sign help for the assertion. TikTok mentioned it took down a number of the movies utilizing the Sound and made the Sound tougher to discover in searches after reviewing the report’s findings. It eliminated the three different Sounds recognized within the report.
“We strive to promote an authentic TikTok experience by limiting the spread of misleading content, including audio, and promoting authoritative information about COVID-19 and vaccines across our app,” a TikTok spokesperson mentioned.
ISD discovered the app had added labels directing to authoritative COVID data on solely two of the 124 movies. The firm mentioned this was as a result of labels have been solely added on movies with particular hashtags.
TikTok final week introduced adjustments to its content-moderation techniques for sure content material, shifting to absolutely automated reviewing techniques for classes like nudity and violent or graphic materials.
© Thomson Reuters 2021
