7 hours Ago By David Afolayan
Social video content platform, TikTok has affirmed its commitment to ensuring content integrity and combating misinformation during the Ghana general elections billed to hold on December 7. According to a statement on its website, TikTok has launched several initiatives with the local electoral commission and civil society organisations to combat misinformation and ensure that users have access to trusted and authoritative information. “These initiatives are just one element of our ongoing and long-standing commitment to maintain the platform’s integrity, Fortune Mgwili-Sibanda, Government Relations & Public Policy, Sub-Saharan Africa said.
For example, TikTok is setting up an in-app Election Centre in partnership with the Electoral Commission of Ghana and DUBAWA , in a pivotal step, to safeguard the integrity of information about the electoral process. The dedicated hub (available in English) will provide users access to a wealth of information from reliable sources. To maximise its visibility, TikTok will ensure that users searching for election-related content can effortlessly find and engage with the hub.
In addition, TikTok will implement labels on content associated with the 2024 General Elections. These labels will also serve as direct links to the hub, enabling viewers to access comprehensive information about the elections and fact-checked articles. “As part of our broader election integrity efforts, we will also add reminders to hashtags to encourage people to follow our rules, verify facts, and report content they believe violates our Community Guidelines”, Fortune further explained.
Read also: Stereotypes to virality: How Charity Ekezie’s TikTok content challenges global misconceptions about Africa TikTok prides itself on the fact that its teams work alongside technology to consistently enforce rules to detect and remove harmful misinformation, covert influence operations, and other content and behaviour that violates its Community Guidelines. Recall that two weeks ago, the platform announced that it removed over 360,000 content of users in Kenya. This time, TikTok has announced that it is dedicating a ‘Mission Control’ space in advance of the Ghana elections.
This unit will bring together its specialist elections teams across various departments, to maximise the effectiveness of its work in the run-up to and during the elections. This team will work around the clock to ensure the integrity of the platform during the election. The social platform listed other steps to ensure information credibility.
These include: Fact-checking: partnering with 20 fact-checking organizations globally, including Code for Africa in Ghana to help evaluate the accuracy of TikTok content and determine if the claims are unsubstantiated. As part of this work, they will also share intelligence to help detect harmful misinformation and anticipate potential misinformation spreading. Investing in media literacy: TikTok is also investing in media literacy campaigns.
The platform has launched media literacy resources in collaboration with DUBAWA including educational videos and fact-checking skills. Local creators have contributed videos in English and Twi, ensuring accessibility and engagement across our community. These videos will help equip the TikTok community to identify potential misinformation online and encourage them to “stop.
think.” before sharing. Tackling misleading AI-generated content: TikTok also announced that it will not allow manipulated content that could be misleading AI-generated content (AIGC) of public figures if it depicts them endorsing a political view.
The platform will require creators to label any realistic AIGC and recently launched a first-of-its-kind tool to help people do this. Recall that in May, the platform announced a partnership with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) – making it the first video-sharing platform to implement Content Credentials technology. The tool will help it automatically label AI-generated content (AIGC) when it is uploaded from other platforms.
Political handles: The platform also announced that it will remove violative content from verified accounts belonging to politicians and institutions as it will do for anyone else. The social platform added that it will apply more nuanced account enforcement policies to protect the public interest. For example, if such accounts post content promoting misinformation that could undermine a civic process or contribute to real-world harm during an election period, TikTok may restrict the account from posting content for up to 30 days.
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