At TikTok, we work to protect the integrity of our platform through more than 200 elections around the world since 2020 alone, and are committed to maintaining a civil place for people to express themselves and build community. In Ireland, as we prepare for the race for the Áras, our Irish elections taskforce will work alongside technology to prevent harmful content and empower people to separate fact from fiction.
Today, we're sharing more on how we do that and announcing the launch of our Presidential Election Center, an in-app hub where users in Ireland can find reliable election information in the weeks to come.
Connecting people to trusted sources of information
Through TikTok's in-app Election Center, users in Ireland can find verified information about voting and the election from the Electoral Commission alongside an overview of the election in Ireland with and voting guidance. To ensure that we're reaching users where they are, we'll direct them to the center through election tags on relevant election content and searches. We've also partnered with Reuters, our local fact-checking partner, to provide media literacy tips alongside. We took a similar approach during last year's Irish, European, US and UK elections, and we were pleased to connect millions of users to our Local Election Centre
Combating harmful misinformation
We protect our TikTok community by enforcing firm policies against harmful misinformation and attempts to deceive it. To do that, we invest in advanced moderation technologies and thousands of safety professionals who work together to protect our community. That includes our Elections Taskforce right here in Ireland.
We prohibit harmful misinformation and may label unverified content, make it ineligible for recommendation, and prompt people to reconsider before sharing. We work with more than 20 global fact-checking organizations globally to assess the accuracy of content so that our teams can apply those policies accurately, including with Reuters in Ireland. In Q1 2025, more than 99% of all the content we removed for election and civic misinformation was taken down before it was reported to us.
Deterring deceptive behavior
We are highly vigilant against attempts to undermine authentic interactions on TikTok, and have teams who work full-time to disrupt deceptive behaviors.
We prohibit covert influence operations, where networks of accounts misleadingly work together in an attempt to influence public discussion on important social issues, and we report these network disruptions every month in our Transparency Center. We also prohibit impersonation or attempts to artificially boost content through fake engagement like bot networks.
Prohibiting Paid Ads
As an entertainment platform, we've long prohibited paid political advertising on TikTok because we don't believe it's conducive to authentic, creative TikTok experiences. Accounts belonging to governments, politicians or political parties ("GPPPAs") are not allowed to use advertising or monetization features, and are subject to additional dedicated rules given the public interest role play they play in civic proccesses.
Preventing misleading AI-generated content
To protect viewers from being misled, we require creators to label realistic AI-generated content (AIGC) and have consistently been industry leaders in adopting new AI labelling tools and technologies, including a labelling toggle for creators, and C2PA (Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity) Content Credentials that enables us to identify AIGC made on other platforms. Harmful AIGC is not allowed, even if labeled. That includes AIGC that falsely depicts public figures making an endorsement, being endorsed, or being bullied or harassed.