TikTok wants to clearly identify videos posted by government entities

The platform wants to better inform its users when videos come from state-funded and state-controlled media.

TikTok is now the social network that everyone is talking about, and many players are trying to capture this audience of more than 1 billion people to disseminate their language elements.

State media is trying to rejuvenate its audience on TikTok

If TikTok is known for its fun or unusual content as well as its dance videos, the social network has seen its panel of creators diversify over the years. Anonymous and influencers now rub shoulders with traditional or web media that are trying to rejuvenate their audience by adopting the platform’s own codes.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult for the public to know who is speaking. In many countries, the media are controlled by governments which have absolute control over the editorial content and the information disseminated.

TikTok is gradually becoming aware of the problem and today announces the arrival of new measures to better inform users about the nature of the content they watch.

Fighting misinformation by listing government-run media outlets

TikTok began a test phase on Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian media during the year 2022. The content produced by the various press organs of these three countries was accompanied by a label indicating that some of them were controlled by the government.

The deployment is now global, and the TikTok teams announce that they have consulted ” more than 60 experts, scientists, politicians, academics and representatives of international organizations across North and South America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Australia “. The platform also collaborates with “ a global media monitoring agency to compile a list of those with a connection to a government.

The objective for the social network is to sort the independent press organs, although financed by public funds, from those for which the power in place intervenes in the editorial line in order to fight against misinformation. For each media, TikTok wanted to establish a list of evidence of past interference, non-compliance with its editorial line or a link between the leader of a newspaper and a member of the government of the country in which it is established.

This approach is intended to be methodical and factual, and TikTok indicates that media who disagree with the label that has been applied to them can appeal this decision by contacting its teams.

Source : TikTok press release