The Chinese video sharing application TikTok said on Wednesday that it will fact check content on US Election Day as well as disallow voter suppression tactics and unverified claims of election victory
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th October, 2020) The Chinese video sharing application TikTok said on Wednesday that it will fact check content on US Election Day as well as disallow voter suppression tactics and unverified claims of election victory.
"With heightened focus around Election Day, we'll be partnering with these fact checkers to reduce discoverability of content that prematurely claims victory in a race before results are confirmed by The Associated Press," TikTok US head of safety Eric Han said in the statement. "Out of an abundance of caution, if claims can't be verified or fact-checking is inconclusive, we'll limit distribution of the content."
Content distributed on popular social media platforms has become a highly-charged issue in the November 3 presidential election, with the White House accusing major technology firms that manage such platforms of bias against President Donald Trump and the Republican party.
The chief executives of Twitter, Google and Facebook are testifying before the Republican-controlled Senate on Wednesday after suppressing new stories related to the presidential election and locking out at least one news outlet.
TikTok said in the statement it will do its part to ensure that no manipulation of information takes place on its platform.
"We'll also add a banner pointing viewers to our election guide on content with unverifiable claims about voting, premature declarations of victory, or attempts to dissuade people from voting by exploiting COVID-19 as a voter suppression tactic," Han said.
TikTok won a court decision last month that allowed it to survive a ban on its US operations by the Trump administration and shortly after launched a guide to the 2020 US elections to provide users with "authoritative information" and to protect them from "misinformation."
