Today we’re announcing the launch of our Election Center, an in-app hub where our Dutch users can find reliable information about the upcoming parliamentary elections. The hub builds on lessons learned from protecting the integrity of our platform in more than 200 elections worldwide since 2020, and adds to our broader efforts to connect users with authoritative information while removing harmful content from the platform.
Connecting people to trusted sources of information
We launched an in-app Election Center to make it easy to find authoritative information about voting and the election. It provides an overview of the election in the Netherlands with information on the voting process, tips on how to recognize misinformation, and the rules that apply to political parties and candidates. There are also direct links to reliable sources, such as the official website of the Electoral Council and the Ministry of the Interior.
To ensure that we're reaching users where they are, we'll direct them to the center through election tags on relevant election content, including livestreams and searches.
This is part of the wider work we do to empower people with authoritative information on TikTok and give them important context about content and accounts. We also label state-affiliated media accounts, provide "verified" badges for accounts to signal they're authentic, and require creators to label realistic AI-generated content while providing tools to make this easy to do.
Combating harmful misinformation
We protect our community by enforcing firm policies against harmful misinformation and attempts to deceive our community. 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 for the Dutch elections.
We prohibit harmful misinformation and may label unverified content, make it ineligible for recommendation, and prompt people to reconsider before sharing. These rules apply to everyone and everything on our platform including videos, comments, TikTok LIVE and more. We work with over 20 global fact-checking organizations globally to inform how we apply our policies. This includes the German Press Agency (dpa), our local fact-checking partner for the Dutch language.
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.
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 labeling tools and technologies—including a labeling toggle for creators, and C2PA Content Credentials that enable 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.
Prohibiting Paid Political Ads
TikTok has long prohibited paid political advertising because we believe it is not compatible with authentic, creative user experiences. Accounts belonging to governments, politicians, or political parties cannot use advertising or monetization features and remain subject to additional dedicated rules given their public-interest role in civic processes.
Candidates, political parties and any other advertisers remain prohibited from promoting election-related content through ads. The only exception is for official entities overseeing elections — such as Electoral Management Bodies—which may run ads strictly limited to essential voter information such as how to vote, voter registration, or participation details. These policies apply across all of our monetization features, including paid ads, creators being compensated for making branded content, including undisclosed advertisements, and the use of other promotional tools on the platform.
We are constantly working to maintain the integrity of our platform, especially during elections. In the Netherlands, we'll continue to invest to stay ahead of potential threats while continuing to make it easy to find reliable sources of information for those engaging with election content on our app. We also plan to publish updates about our work in this space in our Global Election Integrity Hub in the lead up to the election.