TikTok has long shied away from political issues, having burnt its hands for censoring pro-LGBT content and the Hong Kong protests under pressure from the Chinese government. Now the Beijing-based video app is further trying to distance itself from political content.
TikTok had earlier banned any form of political advertisement on its app. It maintained that it would not allow political ads saying that they do not fit in with the sort of experience the short-form video app aims to offer its viewers.
TikTok had said that the nature of optical ads did not fit the standards of the app’s platform experience. In its latest move this week, TikTok said it will mandate all political parties and politicians’ accounts to be validated to make it tough to use the fundraising and advertising system of the platform.
TikTok Executive Expresses Hope That The Move To Limit Or Monitor Political Activity Will Increase Trust Among Viewers
Blake Chandlee, TikTok’s global business solutions president, and a former Facebook executive expressed hope that this move will help in curbing the spread of misinformation that has been a plague in American society.
In a blog post he said that in keeping with past policies, TikTok will continue to promote and nurture policies that promote and foster a spirit of positivity that will bring people close, not split them apart. He said that they would continue to keep damaging and negative content off the TikTok platform, prohibit political ads, and bring the community together with genuine information about the elections.
The social media platform executive said that the platform would continue to prohibit political advertising and connect the community to genuine political information.
Chandlee said that the platform would strive to build trust with followers by verifying government and political entities at every stem. He said that whenever a viewer watches any political or government content, they can rest assured that the content would be genuine.
