TikTok underlines the importance of integrity on its platform and will be introducing election integrity efforts in view of the upcoming General Elections in Thailand. These efforts include developing safety tools to combat misinformation and providing sources of information for users to access accurate and trustworthy information through collaborations with industry experts on key issues and educating users on Community Guidelines and various safety tools that exist on the platform.
Making the platform welcoming and safe
TikTok is a place that brings people together over creative and entertaining content while keeping harmful misinformation and other violations of policies off the platform. Committed to providing access to trustworthy and relevant information for the community, TikTok provides users with education and authoritative information on important public issues.
Fostering a safe environment
TikTok welcomes all expressions that fit within its Community Guidelines, which are designed to help keep TikTok a safe and welcoming place for everyone. Community Guidelines does not allow content intended to mislead the community, such as, impersonation, hate speeches, and adverse activities. TikTok does not permit misinformation that could cause harm to the community or the larger public, including content meant to incite fear, hate, or prejudice.
Advocating proactive safety approaches
In terms of Content Moderation, TikTok addresses content and behaviour that violates our Community Guidelines through a combination of technology, policies and moderation. Around the world, content moderators work around the clock to maintain a safe app environment in accordance with TikTok's policies, including user self-reporting to flag harmful content.
Implementing innovative tools
TikTok provides diverse safety tools for users to penetrate accurate and reliable information from official sources. Among these are Information Hub and Information Tag & Live Banner.
- Information Hub: TikTok believes that having accurate and reliable information is critical when dealing with societal challenges. This involves building a functionality on the platform that will allow access to sources of information. One example of this is during the COVID pandemic when users were aided in seeking trustworthy information from the COVID-19 Center via TikTok's COVID-19 Information Hub.
- Information Tag & Live Banner: Informative tools displayed on videos and livestreaming allow users to access official information about social topics by clicking a button to reach accurate information from authoritative sources. Outstanding example users discovered on the platform was the information tag on COVID-19.
According to Mr. Jirapat Lee, Product Policy Lead - Thailand, TikTok, "We constantly work hard to keep harmful misinformation and other violations off our platform, and we are sharing more information about the work we are doing in this regard to protect our community. At TikTok, we value our user trust and work hard to maintain that trust by removing content that violates our Community Guidelines and keeping our community safe.
According to the Community Guidelines Enforcement Report for July - Sep, 2022, it shows us that 96.5% of videos were removed before they were reported, 92.7% removal within 24 hours, and 89.5% removal before any views."
Election Integrity
TikTok does not accept paid political ads, and that includes paid branded content. As a result, politicians will be prohibited from any forms of monetization. However, TikTok remains focused on supporting users with education and authoritative information on important public topics like the upcoming 2023 Thailand's General Elections. The goal is to help TikTok remain a place where authentic content thrives and stay relevant and meaningful for Thais.
Collaboration with experts
Part of TikTok's efforts during the elections is to prohibit election misinformation, hate speeches, harmful behaviors, and violent extremism. Moreover, a roundtable discussion with academics was held to exchange ideas for developing and updating platform policies for the upcoming 2023 Thailand's General Elections. This includes raising awareness about TikTok's integrity with political parties and their stakeholders via training sessions.
This year, TikTok has taken action against misinformation through various strategic approaches, comprising of collaborating with trusted partners, creating awareness campaigns, and educating users to reach accurate information. Globally, TikTok fact-checking partners, such as AFP. In Thailand, TikTok works with Lead Stories, which is also our global partner and COFACT on anti-misinformation campaigns. Locally, TikTok established #พื้นที่ปลอดภัยในการไถฟีด as a digital literacy hub to educate the community on minor safety, cyberbullying, misinformation, and digital wellbeing.
Initiative election tools
TikTok takes the responsibility to provide the community with credible information about the elections. It initiates an Election Centre which will help connect users with authoritative information about voting processes, candidates and more. The Election Centre allows TikTok to serve as a Public Service Announcement (PSA) platform which will be the official source from the Office of the Election Commission of Thailand, a sole regulator of the elections, bringing legitimate information to TikTok users.
In addition, Election Report Button empowers users to counter hate speeches, harmful behaviors, and misinformation, including those related to the elections. A warning will appear as a reminder to reconsider videos that users are going to share to remind people about TikTok Community Guidelines and verify facts before sharing.
Mrs. Chanida Klyphun, Head of Public Policy - Thailand, TikTok shares "We are constantly looking at how we can develop our practices and processes to protect safety and integrity of our platform during the General Elections. We will have more to share in the coming weeks, including some further steps that we are taking as we work to foster an authentic environment for our community. We believe that providing accurate information and educational resources is an important way to combat misinformation. TikTok is committed to promoting digital literacy through educational videos that encourage users to think carefully about the content they see online as well as information about voting in the elections."