TikTokWhat is he doing or what has he done for the election process in Turkey? A detailed statement came from the company on this subject.
TikTok platform is used in Turkey as well as abroad, and many politicians are trying to reach more people than TikTok. Making a statement on this issue, the platform published an article titled “Our determination to fight disinformation in the election process”. This article includes given: “As TikTok, we are aware of the need to protect the integrity of the platform at the highest level during the election processes. On the other hand, at TikTok, we work to keep harmful misinformation and any content that violates our policies off our platform. Millions of people are preparing to cast their votes in the 2023 general and presidential elections to be held in Turkey in May. While TikTok is not an app that is at the center of political debate or hot news, we recognize that we need to support our community in accessing accurate information. Therefore, today we would like to share with you some of the measures we have taken around our preparations for the election process. Our misleading content policies prevent misinformation, disinformation and manipulated content. We remove content intended to intimidate voters or prevent them from voting, and we do not tolerate content or accounts that promote violence. We’ve made it easy for our users to report misleading content directly through our app. In this context, we have a dedicated team that reviews reports in accordance with our policies regarding misinformation.
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We also continue to work closely with our 10 local stakeholders to keep TikTok informed about relevant policies and disinformation risk management. During this sensitive period, we will continue to cooperate with our fact-checking partner, Teyit.org, to evaluate the accuracy of the content. So we will have the flexibility to quickly remove false or manipulated videos. When content goes through the confirmation process or cannot be confirmed, it may not be eligible to be recommended in the For You feed, and a warning may be added to alert users. On election day, we will cooperate with Teyit.org to reduce the visibility of content claiming early victory before the results are confirmed by the relevant institutions and organizations.”
Providing access to verified information is one of the most important parts of our strategy to combat election disinformation and misinformation. We will launch the Turkey Election Tracking Center in a short time, especially for users who want to access information about the elections. Thus, we will direct users to real information about the elections, including details on how and where to vote. In addition, we provided support to our moderation teams in languages spoken in Turkey other than Turkish. This support will further assist in moderating content in different languages.
In order to ensure that the election tracking center is visible and accessible, we will add tags to the content from the accounts of politicians and political parties in Turkey, as well as the content determined to be related to the parliamentary and Presidential elections. These tags will direct users to the election tracking center page and provide information about the elections. We will also add a warning to our selection guide for content that contains unverifiable claims about voting.
Our primary focus at TikTok is to create a fun and friendly experience for our community. That’s why we don’t allow paid ads with political content on TikTok. Any paid ads must comply with our platform’s standards, and we do not allow paid political ads as they do not conform to the TikTok platform experience. That’s why we won’t allow paid ads promoting or opposing a candidate, current leader, political party or group at the city, district or local level, including election-related and propaganda ads. For more, see our advertising rules.
If our users are watching content from a government, politician, or political party account, we want them to know if the account is verified. While we do not proactively encourage politicians or political parties to join TikTok, we also welcome those who want to be on TikTok. We want to let our community know when watching this content that its source is genuine. The verification process lets our community know that an account is genuine and belongs to the user it represents. While this process is the account holder’s choice, it is recommended for high-profile creators to build trust with their community. We also have strong mechanisms to detect fake accounts of users such as politicians, ministers, political party etc. We also remove these accounts when detected.”