The wildly popular social network TikTok approved ads containing political misinformation ahead of European polls, a report showed on Tuesday, defying its own guidelines and raising questions about its ability to detect election fraud.
International campaign group Global Witness produced 16 ads targeting the Irish public with false information about this week’s EU election and sought to have them approved by three platforms — TikTok, Google-owned YouTube and Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter).
TikTok, which is particularly popular with young voters, approved all 16 for publication, YouTube caught 14 while X filtered all ads and suspended the group’s fake accounts, Global Witness said in its report.
“TikTok has failed miserably in this test,” Henry Peck, a senior spokesman for Global Witness, told AFP.
The fake ads, submitted by the group last month, all contained content that could compromise the election process — including warnings to voters to stay home because of the risk of electoral violence and an increase in communicable diseases.
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They also included a fake notice raising the legal voting age to 21 and urging people to vote by email, which is not allowed in European elections.
In TikTok’s response to the study, which Global Witness shared with AFP, the platform acknowledged that the ads violated its policies.
Citing an internal investigation, the app owned by China’s ByteDance said its systems correctly detected the breach, but the ads were approved due to “human error” by a moderator.
“We immediately put new procedures in place to prevent something like this from happening in the future,” a TikTok spokesperson told AFP.
“no friction”
The failure to track the ads comes as tech campaigners implore the platforms to address growing concerns about a deluge of disinformation plaguing elections around the world.
Peck insisted it was “absolutely vital” that social media sites act against threats to democracy in a year full of major elections culminating in the US presidential election in November.
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“I was surprised because in the past TikTok has caught content that violates its rules, and in this case it didn’t catch anything,” Peck said.
“He seems to have the systems, he has the ability, and yet there has been no friction.”
Global Witness said it had lodged a formal complaint with Irish regulators, saying the platform may be in breach of European rules to mitigate electoral threats.
Earlier this year, the EU published guidelines under its Digital Services Act (DSA) requiring major platforms, including TikTok, to take steps to reduce the risk of poll interference.
Last month, TikTok released a statement detailing the “comprehensive” measures it was taking, saying it was “deeply invested” in protecting electoral integrity.
“Asleep on the Switch”
Global Witness said it deleted the fake ads after receiving notification from TikTok that they had been accepted for publication to prevent any traction.
In addition, he submitted an ad that did not contain misinformation, but violated TikTok’s ban on political ads.
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The team paid £10 ($13) for this ad and found it received 12,000 impressions before running out of credit.
AFP, among more than a dozen other fact-checking organizations, is paid by TikTok in several countries to verify videos that may contain false information.
TikTok has emerged as a major election battleground as politicians across Europe and the United States — including presidential contender Donald Trump — seek to capitalize on the platform’s virality.
The trend comes even as TikTok is under pressure in the United States, where President Joe Biden recently signed a bill that would ban the platform if its owner doesn’t find a buyer for the app within a year.
“And yet in Europe, they seem to be asleep at the switch, as if they’re not attuned to this very blatant pre-election disinformation,” Peck said.
Source: AFP