Although TikTok bans political ads, it has approved ads containing election disinformation. |Photo credit: AP
Just weeks before the U.S. presidential election, TikTok approved ads containing election disinformation even though it bans political ads, according to a report released Thursday by the nonprofit Global Witness.
The technology and environmental watchdog group submitted ads designed to test how well the social media company’s systems detect different types of election misinformation.
The group conducted a similar investigation two years ago and did find that the companies — Facebook in particular — had improved their content moderation systems since then.
But it accused TikTok of approving four of eight ads submitted for review that contained false information about the election. This is despite the platform banning all political ads since 2019.
The ads never appeared on TikTok because Global Witness took them down before they went live.
TikTok spokesman Ben Rathe said: “During the first stage of review, four ads were incorrectly approved but not running on our platform. We do not allow political ads and will continue to enforce this policy.
Facebook, owned by Meta Platforms Inc., “did better,” approving only one of the eight ads submitted, the report said.
Meta said in a statement that while “this report is extremely limited in scope and therefore does not reflect how we enforce our policies at scale, we are continually evaluating and improving our enforcement efforts.”
Global Witness said Google’s YouTube did the best, approving four ads but not allowing any to be published. It requires Global Witness testers to provide more identifying information before publishing it, and “suspends” their accounts when they don’t. However, it is unclear whether the ads would have gone through had Global Witness provided the required identification, the report said.
Google did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
Company policies on paid advertising are almost always stricter than policies on regular user posts. The ads submitted by Global Witness include outright false statements about the election—such as claims that Americans can vote online—as well as disinformation aimed at suppressing the vote, such as claims that voters must pass an English test before voting. Other false ads encouraged violence or threatened election workers and procedures.
The ad submitted by Global Witness was text-based, but the organization said it had translated it into what it calls “algospeak.” Text-centric content moderation system.
Published – October 18, 2024 08:13 AM (IST)
