TikTok has teamed up with a fact-checking group to limit fake news about Taiwan’s coming presidential election, as it seeks to fend off critics that it is a mainland Chinese disinformation tool.
The popular short-video social media app launched its in-app “2024 Election Guide” this week, the company said on Tuesday.
The project was a partnership with MyGoPen, a Taiwan-based organisation certified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).
IFCN was established by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in the US state of Florida in 2015 to set up a code of ethics for fact-checking groups worldwide.
“[The move] is part of our ongoing efforts to protect election integrity and support our community with authoritative information,” TikTok said on its website.
TikTok users would be directed to the guide once they searched for election-related information, viewed relevant videos, and watched live-streaming content, it said.
The company said the guide contained links to Taiwan’s Central Election Commission (CEC) online resources about the election while MyGoPen provided short videos to tell users how to spot misinformation, verify facts, and report content that violated TikTok’s community guidelines.
All election-related clips also have tags telling people how to get information about the campaign and reminding them to follow TikTok’s community guidelines, verify facts, and report content they believe may violate its policies.
“TikTok has also established a dedicated reporting channel for the CEC and the National Police Agency to flag content they believe may be in breach of any local electoral laws or our community guidelines so that our teams can assess it and apply our policies accordingly,” the company said.
Taiwanese voters will go to the polls on January 13 to elect the successor to President Tsai Ing-wen, who ends her second – and final – four-year term in May.
The island has faced a flood of disinformation reportedly from mainland China targeting mostly the ruling Democratic Progressive Party government and Vice-President William Lai Ching-te – the DPP front runner in the race.
Beijing, which sees Taiwan as a wayward province that must be brought under the mainland’s fold, by force if necessary, objects to Lai because of his previous hard-core pro-independence stand.
According to the island’s National Security Bureau, it has tracked at least 1,800 items of disinformation so far this year – up from 1,400 in the same period last year. All of the items came from social media platforms, both in Taiwan and abroad, including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
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In its statement, TikTok said it prohibited misinformation that might cause harm to individuals or society, regardless of intent.
“This includes misinformation about civic and electoral processes,” it said, adding it had worked with various fact-checking groups in Taiwan to stop the spread of disinformation and banned accounts that might spam or mislead others.
TikTok has been fully or partially banned by at least a dozen governments in the world, including the United States, Britain, Canada, and Australia, over fears of data breaches – a claim strongly denied by its mainland Chinese owner ByteDance.
Last year, Taiwan – an informal US ally – followed Washington’s lead in banning it on security grounds from the devices of public sector workers.
The US, like most countries, does not recognise Taiwan as an independent state but is opposed to any unilateral change in the cross-strait status quo by force.
