To fight against the misinformation that abounds on its platform, the social network is taking new measures to banish those who propagate it and authenticate relevant content.
The social network TikTok has announced that it is strengthening its fight against misinformation about climate change. On the eve of World Earth Day, which takes place this Saturday, April 22, the platform published in a blog post its new rules regarding climate denial.
“We will strengthen our policy against misinformation related to climate change. Content denying established scientific facts about the environment, such as those denying climate change or the various factors that contribute to it, are now prohibited. our actions against disinformation, we will work with partners from fact-checking independent to validate the relevance of content”, indicates the social network in its press release, relayed by the American media Mashable.
A popular theme
According to TikTok, keywords related to the environment or ecological practices are very popular: the keyword “vegan” was shared 12 billion times in 2022, “sustainable development” was shared more than 3 billion times, or even 44 billion times for “nature”. In French, “climate change” reaches 31.4 million views.
The platform also highlights several reliable accounts on the subject of the environment and climate change, as well as a series of keywords to consult and share, such as #EcoFriendly, #ZeroWaste (for “zero waste”) or #EarthDay.
In September 2022, TikTok was singled out in a report, accused of being an echo chamber for climate change misinformation. More generally, this report also indicated that one in five videos spread misinformation. If TikTok updates its theoretical rules, the application of these rules remains impossible to assess. At the end of 2022, Arcom singled out the Chinese platform for its opacity regarding its moderation tools. An opacity that is also found at Facebook and Twitter.
