With a potential US ban looming, TikTok has now announced that it's updating its Community Guidelines, which would now include new provisos relating to synthetic media, hate speech, and election integrity efforts.
The updates appear to resonate more with what US officials would like, regarding its moderation policy, and in addition, TikTok also informs that its Community Principles are anchored on its commitment to upholding human rights, which aligns with international legal frameworks.
That sounds like a fairly pointed way of separating itself from potentially different approaches on the mainland.
As per TikTok:
We consulted more than 100 organizations around the world, including our US Content Advisory Council and members of our community, to help inform the most comprehensive updates to our Community Guidelines to date," it said. Their input helped strengthen rules in place to respond to new threats and potential harms.
Changes mainly occur in the policy concerning synthetic media: "AI creations depicting realistic scenes are now clearly required to be labeled as such.".
"We embrace the innovation that new artificial intelligence (AI) and other digital technologies may unlock. But AI can make it harder to distinguish between fact and fiction, posing both societal and individual risks. Synthetic media or manipulated that shows realistic scenes must be clearly disclosed. This can be done through the use of a sticker or caption, such as 'synthetic', 'fake', 'not real', or 'altered'."
TikTok's synthetic media policy also prohibits AI depictions of private citizens, but allows those of public figures, as long as they are not used to endorse products or otherwise violate the policies of the platform.
As generative AI tools are on the rise, TikTok is looking to get on the front foot while providing clear guidelines that protect politicians from misrepresentation via this form.
TikTok has also introduced 'tribe' as an additional protected attribute in the hate speech and hateful behavior policy, giving more culturally nuanced consideration, while it has introduced new, specific rules related to the protection of government accounts and political party accounts and countermeasures against election-related misinformation.
Clearly, there's a tilt toward benefitting and protecting politicians here - the people that will end up voting on a TikTok ban - while updates overall align with emerging usage behaviors and trends, providing more avenues for TikTok to crack down on misuse.
Moreover, TikTok states that it's overhauled the way it presents its rules, with sections now being separated thematically into topic areas.
TikTok has also published four pillars of its moderation approach, namely:
Remove violative content
Age-restrict mature content so it is only viewed by adults (18 years or older)
Make content ineligible for recommendation in the For You feed that isn't appropriate for a broad audience
Empower our community with information tools and resources to stay in control of their experience
The updates are, no doubt, an effort to ingratiate TikTok with US regulators better, aligning with the key pain points identified as concerns by US officials. The updates further separate TikTok from the rules applied in the Chinese version of the app, Douyin, which, ideally, will help show that TikTok is a separate entity and is not dictated by Chinese management.
And overall, the new Community Guidelines are easier to understand – so while it does feel like a ploy to appeal to US officials, it's a good update either way, which should help users better understand the platform's rules.