TikTokAt TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. We’re passionate about earning the trust of our community and strive to build responsibly, equitably, and openly. Millions of people across South Africa come to TikTok every month, many of whom will vote in the upcoming South African elections on 29 May 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.
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 South Africa elections. This Mission Control brings together our specialist elections team from our trust and safety department to maximise the effectiveness of our work in the run-up to, and during, the elections.
- Countering misinformation: In Q4 2023, 99% of all the content we removed for election and civic misinformation was taken down before it was reported to us. We have 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 work with Code for Africa who assess the accuracy of content in numerous South African languages, and we label various claims that cannot be verified. Our fact-checking partners assess whether a claim is true, false, or unsubstantiated so that our moderators can take the right action based on our Community Guidelines, including removing or labelling content. They also share intelligence that helps us detect harmful misinformation and anticipate potential misinformation spreading on TikTok and on other platforms.
- Investing in media literacy: An important pillar of our strategy to combat misinformation is to help our community separate fact from fiction by investing in media literacy campaigns. Ahead of the elections, we will launch new media literacy resources in collaboration with Africa Check, which will include sign language content - a groundbreaking first for TikTok. Local creators have contributed educational videos in English, Afrikaans, isiZulu, isiXhosa, and sign language, accompanied by English subtitles, ensuring accessibility and engagement across diverse communities. These videos seek to equip the TikTok community with properly identifying potential misinformation online, encouraging them to "stop. think." before sharing.
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 will soon introduce 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. As the technology evolves, we will continue to strengthen our efforts, including by working with industry through content provenance partnerships.
Directing people to trusted information
In partnership with the Electoral Commission (IEC) and leading civil society organisations, our in-app Election centre represents a pivotal step towards safeguarding the integrity of the electoral process. Through this dedicated hub available in local languages such as isiZulu, Afrikaans, Sesotho, Setswana and English, users will gain access to a wealth of information from reliable sources. In order to maximise the visibility and accessibility of our in-app centre, we have implemented labels on content associated with the 2024 general elections. These labels serve as direct links to the hub, enabling viewers to access comprehensive information about the elections with a simple click. Additionally, users searching for election related content can effortlessly find and engage with our in-app elections centre.
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. We have recently updated our Community Guidelines, further clarifying our rules along with new features that help creators learn our policies and check their account status.
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. To that end, many South African leaders, ministers, and political parties are on the platform. To help our community trust that someone is exactly who they say they are, we verify accounts. 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.
We recognise that there is appetite for such accounts and content, and like anybody in our community, we welcome expression as long as it does not violate our Community Guidelines. We do take a specific approach to these accounts, guided by maintaining both the integrity of the platform and the safety of the people who use it. 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.
Accounts belonging to politicians, political parties, governments, and news organisations also play a unique role in civic discourse, and 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.
Our work to keep TikTok safe has no finish line, and we will invest over $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
Sy Mamabolo, Chief Electoral Officer, Electoral Commission of South Africa
"The Electoral Commission of South Africa welcomes the steps TikTok has taken to create a page for authenticated educational information about these elections. Factual Information and positive information are key to defending citizens from the scourge of Disinformation, Misinformation, and Malinformation in the lead up to elections."
Sarah Lubala Info Finder & Media Literacy Editor, Africa Check
"Media literacy provides individuals with the critical thinking skills needed to distinguish credible information from misinformation and disinformation, enabling informed voting decisions. We are proud to partner with TikTok on this important initiative, as together, we aim to equip South Africans with the skills necessary to navigate today's complex media landscape effectively. Through collaborative efforts like these, we aim to create a more informed and engaged electorate, ensuring the thriving of democracy in our country."
