TikTok has updated its community guidelines, that is, the guidelines that regulate what is allowed and what is not within its application, and has incorporated news related to the content generated by artificial intelligence on its platformin addition to everything that has to do with politics, from electoral processes to the parties themselves.
These 2 new updates come at a time when technology based on artificial intelligence, capable of generating both text and images autonomously, has burst into force around the world and still makes experts wonder the different implications that its unraveling. massive use. In addition to the fact that in this 2023 12 important electoral processes are expected in various countries such as Russia, the United Kingdom or Spain, among others.
Apart of this, TikTok has been immersed in an intense communication and public relations campaign for monthsafter scrutiny and skepticism from regulators around the world has intensified recently as the US-China tech war escalates.
Both the European Union and the United Kingdom and United States governments have recently prohibited their workers from using TikTok on their corporate phones as a preventive measure against the threat of sensitive data leaks. The US is even studying the possibility of banning TikTok in its territory, something that the Trump Administration has already considered.
Among the novelties included in the update of the rules of the social network and that will come into force as of April 21, the company highlights that although they are open “to the potential for creativity that new artificial intelligence technologies can bring”This carries risks. “AI can make it more difficult to distinguish between fact and fiction, which carries both social and individual risks”says the company.
Along these lines, from now on, the social network prohibits any “synthetic medium” —realistic digitally created content, such as a deepfake— that represents or simulates a private person. In the case of celebrities, TikTok is more flexible, and in specific uses, such as the celebrity in question “practice a popular TikTok dance” its use will be allowed.
“Synthetic or manipulated media showing realistic scenes must be publicly disclosed,” the new rule says. However, TikTok does not force users to indicate that this content is manipulated or that it is not real, but simply suggests that it be flagged as “not real”. “For this, a sticker or legend can be used, such as “synthetic”, “false”, “not real” or “altered”, picks up the new standard.
Political parties cannot pay to advertise on TikTok
Until now, the rules of the TikTok community did not have an in-depth impact on electoral processes or the activities of political parties on the platform. It only regulated those issues that had to do with misinformation or the publication of false information about elections.
Now it incorporates a section that focuses on this topic. On TikTok, for example, political parties cannot pay to post promotional contentunlike other platforms such as Facebook, where political groups left more than 24 million euros in Spain last year, as published Vozpopuli.
The social network also does not allow content creators to receive compensation for supporting a particular candidate or party. TikTok collects that “Content that includes unverified claims about the outcome of an election will be excluded from the feed For you”although it does not develop in depth to verify all the content that is dumped daily on its platform.
From the social network they assure that in the coming months it will provide additional training to the moderators of its platform, to help them enforce these updated rules and regulations.
“We believe that everyone deserves to feel safe online and that feeling safe is key to fueling and inspiring imagination and creative expression. That’s why we continue to invest in our work to keep TikTok a safe, inclusive and authentic home for our global community, so they can create, discover and connect,” said Julie de Bailliencourt, Global Head of Privacy Policy, in a statement. Product on TikTok.
