TikTok wants to put a stop to misinformation. The Chinese social network has begun to ban videos that offer denialist content on climate change. As of April, information that goes against the consensus of the scientific community will not be allowed, according to Engadget, based on information published by The Daily Beast.
According to the service’s announcement, the platform will no longer allow content that “undermines the well-established scientific consensus” regarding the climate crisis. Any user searching for weather information will be directed to “authoritative information,” which TikTok has determined in collaboration with the United Nations (UN).
The platform will eliminate this type of information, although it will allow videos that address debates on climate change, such as government policies related to it.
It should be remembered that in 2022 NewsGuard researchers published a study on disinformation, in which they concluded that the platform had a large amount of false data on climate change. In addition to containing misinformation about this issue, when searching for the term, the social network returned suggestions such as “climate change debunked” and “climate change doesn’t exist” in its searches.
In addition to its new policies on climate change, TikTok announced last March that it would modify its moderation policies to include new restrictions, such as the regulation of so-called deepfakes, videos generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) that very precisely imitate the appearance and voice of a person and that contribute to the misinformation of the community.
Deepfakes are especially controversial, especially after the viralization of some AI-generated images showing an alleged arrest of former US President Donald Trump. The sequence of photos, in which the arrested Republican was also seen, spread like wildfire through the networks. And many users were not able to detect that it was not a real scene.
From now on, all digitally created or manipulated media on TikTok must now come with the proper label, such as “synthetic,” “fake,” or “altered,” in another attempt to curb misinformation on social media.
