TikTok’s Election Integrity Under Scrutiny: Platform Fails to Detect Blatant Disinformation in Ads, Raising Concerns Ahead of Key Elections
A recent investigation has revealed critical vulnerabilities in TikTok’s ability to prevent the spread of election disinformation, raising serious concerns about the platform’s preparedness for upcoming electoral cycles. The investigation, which focused on the platform’s advertising policies, found that TikTok failed to detect and reject ads containing blatant disinformation and calls to violence, even though such content is explicitly prohibited under the platform’s own rules. This failure underscores the urgent need for TikTok to bolster its content moderation efforts and ensure that its systems effectively protect democratic processes from manipulation and abuse.
The investigation submitted a series of ads to TikTok containing fabricated information and inflammatory rhetoric related to upcoming elections. Surprisingly, a significant number of these ads, which clearly violated TikTok’s advertising policies, were approved and potentially reached a wide audience. This lapse in content review is particularly alarming given the potential for such disinformation to sway public opinion and undermine electoral integrity. The investigation’s findings come at a time when TikTok is reportedly planning staff reductions in its safety and content moderation teams, raising further concerns about the platform’s commitment to combating disinformation.
The ease with which disinformation slipped through TikTok’s ad review process highlights a systemic issue. The test ads contained overtly false information and calls to violence, making them readily identifiable as problematic content. In real-world scenarios, disinformation campaigns often employ more sophisticated tactics, utilizing subtly deceptive narratives and manipulative strategies. This raises serious questions about TikTok’s ability to detect and address more sophisticated forms of disinformation, which pose an even greater threat to democratic processes.
The EU has established legal frameworks requiring very large online platforms, including TikTok, to actively mitigate the risks of election interference. These regulations mandate that platforms implement robust mechanisms to swiftly identify and respond to manipulation attempts, disinformation campaigns, and voter suppression efforts. The EU also provides guidance to platforms, emphasizing the importance of proactive measures to address these threats. TikTok’s failure to detect blatant disinformation in its own advertising system raises doubts about its compliance with these regulations and its capacity to fulfill its responsibilities in safeguarding electoral integrity.
The investigation’s findings underscore the urgent need for TikTok to take decisive action to address these shortcomings. Firstly, the platform must adequately resource its election integrity efforts globally, ensuring sufficient staffing and providing content moderators with fair wages, the right to unionize, and essential psychological support. These individuals play a crucial role in identifying and removing harmful content, and their well-being and ability to perform their duties effectively are paramount.
Secondly, TikTok must rigorously enforce its policies on election-related disinformation, encompassing both organic content and paid advertisements. This enforcement should be consistent and proactive, spanning the periods before, during, and after elections. Finally, TikTok should enhance transparency by publishing detailed information about the steps it has taken to ensure election integrity, broken down by country and language. This transparency will enable independent scrutiny and hold the platform accountable for its efforts to combat disinformation.
In response to the investigation’s findings, a TikTok spokesperson acknowledged that the submitted ads violated their advertising policies and initiated an internal investigation to determine the cause of the oversight. They attributed the failure to a multi-stage review process, suggesting that ads may undergo further scrutiny based on factors such as impression thresholds or user reports. While TikTok claims to prioritize user safety and preventing the spread of harmful misinformation, the investigation’s results demonstrate a clear gap between policy and practice. To effectively combat election disinformation and uphold its responsibility to protect democratic processes, TikTok must significantly strengthen its content moderation efforts and ensure its systems are robust enough to detect and remove harmful content before it reaches a wide audience. The platform’s credibility and its role in fostering a safe and informed online environment depend on its ability to address these critical vulnerabilities and demonstrate a genuine commitment to combating disinformation and protecting electoral integrity.
