Election misinformation is spreading on TikTok ahead of the US midterms despite the company's policies —and watchdogs are concerned about its effect on young voters as more Americans use the platform as a source of news.
Posts spreading unfounded claims of voter fraud, falsehoods about mail-in ballots and misleading videos about different state laws have found a home on the immensely popular app. FILE PHOTO
"Hackers can easily change the election results! Don't bother voting in the midterms," says one such ad. TikTok's parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance, has rules aimed at limiting the spread of conspiracy theories about elections. But experts question how effective they are. And the sheer volume of content on TikTok makes it "more likely that users in general -- especially more young, impressionable users -- are going to come into contact with potentially divisive, polarizing, objectionable content," said Matt Navarra, a social media industry analyst and consultant based in Britain.TikTok removes content that could mislead on "civic processes, public health or safety," according to its integrity policies -- including falsehoods about voting.
In the second quarter of 2022, TikTok removed 113 million videos for violating its community guidelines -- an amount that represents about one percent of all videos uploaded to the platform. A small fraction of the posts were removed for violating the company's integrity policies.
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