TIKTOK GAVE APPROVAL to some election disinformation ads seeking to run in Ireland, according to Global Witness, an NGO that investigates various issues related to human rights.
The organisation submitted 28 ads – half in Irish, half in English – to TikTok that included “clear and obvious disinformation” about the general election to test whether they would be approved.
The examples of disinformation used in the test ads included that votes can be cast on Facebook, that voters can vote by post after the polls have closed on the day of the election, and that voters need to provide proof of two Covid-19 vaccines to be allowed to vote.
Global Witness said that it “should have been immediately clear to any human reviewer” that these statements were false.
In total, TikTok approved nearly half (11) of the ads with disinformation.
Eight of the ads that received approval were in Irish and three were in English.
The substantially higher rate of approval for the ads in Irish is a “clear blind spot” in the app’s moderation system, Global Witness said.
After the submitted ads were reviewed by TikTok, Global Witness deleted them before they were published so that none of the ads with disinformation ultimately went live to app users.
“Social media platforms have a responsibility to keep elections safe. As more and more people get their news from their social media feeds, the least platforms should do is ensure that this content is free from the most obvious forms of disinformation,” said Ava Lee, Global Witness’ campaign lead for digital threats.
“Yet this test shows once again that platforms are prioritising profit over safety and proper risk mitigation measures.”
A TikTok spokesperson confirmed to Global Witness that all of the ads it submitted violated their advertising polices.
The spokesperson said that TikTok has conducted an investigation into why some of the ads were not rejected and said that ads may go through additional stages of review if certain conditions are met, such as reaching a particular number of impressions on the app or being reported by users once the ad has gone live.
The spokesperson also said that TikTok is “focused on keeping people safe and working to ensure that TikTok is not used to spread harmful misinformation that reduces the integrity of civic processes or institutions” and said that they do this by “enforcing robust policies to prevent the spread of harmful misinformation”, along with other measures.
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