TikTok is a place where over a billion people create and share content on topics that matter to them. TikTok is committed to helping users discover authentic content, connect with genuine people, and preserving a platform that remains safe and trustworthy. To protect the community from harmful misinformation and respond to the evolving nature of false information, TikTok works with experts — including through its Global Fact-Checking Program — and equips the community with credible information, encouraging authentic expression.
Protecting People from Harmful Content
While it’s natural for users across a global community to hold a wide range of differing opinions, when it comes to topics that affect user safety, TikTok must act in line with widely accepted facts and authenticity. Protecting people is a foundational part of TikTok’s three-pillar strategy, emphasizing the importance of safeguarding both individual users and the wider community.
Under TikTok’s Community Guidelines, regardless of the poster’s intent, content that could significantly harm an individual or society, or that is inaccurate, misleading, or fabricated, is prohibited. This includes not only content that could cause physical harm, but also societal harm, such as undermining trust in elections or public health efforts.
Beyond misinformation categories like medical, climate, and election misinformation, TikTok also enforces strong policies on public safety issues such as misleading AI-generated content, conspiracy theories, and natural disasters, applying these policies to prevent the spread of harmful misinformation.
Transparency around content moderation is essential. When a user’s content is actioned for violating TikTok’s misinformation policies, they’re notified both through an in-app notification and via the “Account Status” page in the Safety Center, and if they believe the action was made in error, they can appeal. Ensuring this kind of transparency not only strengthens user trust but also encourages accountability.
Image: TikTok
Partnering with Experts
TikTok works with experts worldwide to enable precise moderation, understand local context, and equip the community with credible information. This collaboration strengthens the effectiveness of TikTok’s protective measures and helps identify proactive approaches.
Through its Global Fact-Checking Program, TikTok partners with over 20 fact-checking organizations accredited by the IFCN to assess content accuracy across more than 50 languages and 100 regions. These partners evaluate claims to help ensure accuracy, without directly moderating content on TikTok themselves. Fact-checkers help identify harmful misinformation and detect emerging content trends, supporting TikTok’s moderators in ensuring appropriate action is taken in line with Community Guidelines.
Local expertise plays a key role in TikTok’s efforts. TikTok prioritizes working with locally based organizations that are recognized by international fact-checking networks and experienced in evaluating misinformation across social media and short-form video. This local expertise allows TikTok’s program to address the unique challenges present in different regions as it scales globally.
Empowering the Community with Trustworthy Information
Beyond content moderation, TikTok continuously works to proactively prevent misinformation by equipping the community with media literacy resources to help identify false information, think critically about content, and report content that violates the rules. These include:
- Prompts that encourage viewers to reconsider before sharing unverified content that could be potentially harmful
- AI-generated content labeling tools for unverified claims, and Blue “verified” checks to confirm the authenticity of notable accounts
- Guidance directing users to credible sources when searching for sensitive topics such as health, elections, or ongoing crises, along with informational banners added to relevant hashtag pages and LIVE content
- Labels identifying state-affiliated media to help viewers better understand the source of the content
These tools work in tandem with TikTok’s content moderation efforts, giving users the knowledge and resources they need to find trustworthy information.
TikTok’s approach to protection, partnership, and empowerment creates a multi-pronged strategy for addressing misinformation from every angle. By continuing to serve as a safe space, partnering with experts for accuracy, and equipping users with tools to think critically about content, TikTok reaffirms its commitment to fostering an authentic, well-informed global community, including in Myanmar.