By: Fortune Mgwili-Sibanda, Government Relations & Public Policy, Sub-Saharan Africa

At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. We’re passionate about earning the trust of our community on the continent and strive to build responsibly, equitably, and openly. Millions of people across Ghana come to TikTok every month, many of whom will vote in the upcoming elections on 7 December 2024.

We are launching several initiatives with the local electoral commission and civil society organisations in order to combat misinformation and ensure that users have access to trusted and authoritative information. These initiatives are just one element of our ongoing and long-standing commitment to maintain the platform's integrity.

Directing people to trusted information

In partnership with the Electoral Comission of Ghana and DUBAWA, our in-app Election Centre represents a pivotal step towards safeguarding the integrity of the information about the electoral process. Through this dedicated hub available in English, users gain access to a wealth of information from reliable sources. In order to maximise the visibility and accessibility of our in-app centre, users searching for election related content can effortlessly find and engage with our in-app elections centre.

Additionally, we will be implementing labels on content associated with the 2024 General Elections. These labels will also serve as direct links to the hub, enabling viewers to access comprehensive information about the elections as well as fact-checked articles.

As part of our broader election integrity efforts, we will also add reminders to hashtags to encourage people to follow our rules, verify facts, and report content they believe violates our Community Guidelines.

Enforcing our policies

Our teams work alongside technology to ensure that we are consistently enforcing our rules to detect and remove harmful misinformation, covert influence operations, and other content and behaviour that violates our Community Guidelines. In addition, we have established a dedicated 'Mission Control' space in advance of the Ghana elections that brings together our specialist elections teams across various departments, to maximise the effectiveness of our work in the run-up to, and during, the elections. This team works around the clock to ensure the integrity of our platform during the election, with steps that include:

  • Countering misinformation: In Q2 2024, 99.2% of all the content we removed for election and civic misinformation was taken down before it was reported to us. This was partly enabled by the specialised misinformation moderators who are given enhanced tools and training to detect and remove violative content, as well as teams on the ground who partner with experts to ensure local context and nuance is reflected in our approach.
  • Fact-checking: We partner with 20 fact-checking organizations globally, including Code for Africa in Ghana , who help evaluate the accuracy of TikTok content, and we label content that they determine is unsubstantiated. As part of this work, they share intelligence that helps us detect harmful misinformation and anticipate potential misinformation spreading on TikTok and on other platforms.
  • Investing in media literacy: We also help our community separate fact from fiction by investing in media literacy campaigns. Ahead of the Ghana elections, we launched media literacy resources in collaboration with DUBAWA which include educational videos and fact-checkings skills . Local creators have contributed videos in English and Twi, ensuring accessibility and engagement across our community. These videos seek to equip the TikTok community with properly identifying potential misinformation online, encouraging them to "stop. think." before sharing.
@dubawafacts Don’t let false information slip away this election period. If it sounds too good to be true, it’s probaly false. Stay sharp with these quick tips. Click the link in bio to get the latest election factchecks from us. #dubawachecks #dubawa #factchecks #ghana2024 #ghanaelections2024 #ghanadecides #accraghana🇬🇭 ♬ original sound - DubawaFacts


@dubawafacts Wondering where to find genuine election information? Here’s your guide to reliable sources! Click the link in bio to say Hello to the DUBAWA Chatbot. #ghanaelections2024 #ghana2024 #ghana2024elections #ghanadecides2024 #misinformation ♬ original sound - DubawaFacts
  • Deterring covert influence operations: During elections, bad actors may seek to use deceptive behaviors in an effort to affect an election outcome or process. We have dedicated experts working to detect, disrupt, and stay ahead of deceptive behaviours. We report the removals of covert influence networks in our quarterly Community Guidelines Enforcement Reports. We recently introduced our dedicated covert influence operations reports to further increase transparency, accountability, and cross-industry sharing. We currently provide information about how we assess this behaviour on our Transparency Centre.
  • Tackling misleading AI-generated content: AI-generated content (AIGC) brings new challenges around misinformation, which we've proactively addressed with firm rules and new technologies. We do not allow manipulated content that could be misleading, including AIGC of public figures if it depicts them endorsing a political view. We also require creators to label any realistic AIGC and recently launched a first-of-its-kind tool to help people do this. In May, we announced our partnership with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) - making us the first video sharing platform to implement Content Credentials technology. This partnership helps us automatically label AI-generated content (AIGC) when it's uploaded from certain other platforms.

    • Tailoring our approach to accounts belonging to politicians, political parties and news outlets

    TikTok is an entertainment platform defined by the diversity of our community and the content they enjoy, with several Ghanaian leaders, ministers, and political parties, on the platform.

    We believe that verified accounts belonging to politicians and institutions provide the electorate with another route to access their representatives, and additional trusted voices in the shared fight against misinformation; and that accounts belonging to politicians, political parties, governments, and news organisations also play a unique role in civic discourse. While we remove their violative content like we do for anyone else, we also apply more nuanced account enforcement policies to protect the public interest.

    For example, if such an account were to post content promoting misinformation that could undermine a civic process or contribute to real-world harm during an election period, we may restrict that account from posting content for up to 30 days, in addition to removing the content for breaking our rules. We also don't allow accounts belonging to politicians or political parties to advertise or make money on TikTok, and we have advanced controls to verify accounts.

    We have a long-standing policy of not allowing paid political advertising, and accounts belonging to politicians or political parties are not able to advertise or make money on TikTok.

    Our work to keep TikTok safe has no finish line, and we committed to investing $2bn globally this year to further strengthen our trust and safety efforts. We're proud to be a place that brings people together, and we work hard to keep misinformation off our platform, and we will continue to partner with experts across the world to ensure that our approach evolves to address emerging challenges or threats.

    A word from our partners

    Jean Mensa, Chairperson, Ghana Electoral Commission

    "Part of Ghana Electoral Commission's commitment in the Electoral process is to engage various audiences of the voting population. This collaboration with TikTok to create an election Hub where Ghanaians can access credible information will help mitigate some of the greatest threats to credible elections. We strongly believe that this initiative will assist to counter misinformation, disinformation and fake news"

    Akintunde Babatunde, Director of Programmes, Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development, DUBAWA

    "Over the years, DUBAWA has tackled election-related disinformation on social media in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, and Senegal. Dubawa is excited to partner with TikTok on the launch of the Ghana election hub & media literacy campaign.

    TikTok is a key platform for advancing fact-checking and media literacy campaigns during the election. We are excited about the opportunity to collaborate with TikTok on the Ghana Election Hub and Media Literacy Campaign. This partnership helps ensure that voters have access to reliable information, fostering a more informed and engaged electorate. Together, we are making a transformative impact on Ghana’s information ecosystem and contributing to the strengthening of democracy."