SAN FRANCISCO — TikTok permitted advertisements containing election disinformation just weeks before the US presidential election, despite its restriction on political marketing, according to a report published Thursday by the charity Global Witness.
The technology and environmental watchdog group filed ads aimed to test how successfully social media companies’ systems recognize various sorts of election misinformation.
The group, which conducted a similar analysis two years ago, discovered that corporations, particularly Facebook, have improved their content control processes since then.
TikTok Let Through Disinformation In Political Ads Despite Its Own Ban, Global Witness Finds
It did, however, criticize TikTok for approving four of the eight ads submitted for review that contained misleading information regarding the election. That is despite the platform’s restriction on all political adverts, which has been in effect since 2019.
The advertisements never appeared on TikTok because Global Witness removed them before they went live.
“Four ads were incorrectly approved during the first stage of moderation, but they did not run on our platform,” TikTok spokesman Ben Rathe stated. “We do not allow political advertising and will continue to enforce this policy on an ongoing basis.”
According to the research, Facebook, owned by Meta Platforms Inc., “did much better” by approving only one of the eight submitted ads.
In a press release, Meta stated that while “this report is extremely limited in scope and as a result not reflective of how we enforce our policies at scale, we nonetheless are continually evaluating and improving our enforcement efforts.”
Global Witness reported that Google’s YouTube performed the best, authorizing four ads but not allowing any to be published. It requested further identification from the Global Witness testers before publishing them, then “paused” their accounts when they did not comply. However, the investigation noted it’s unclear if the advertising would have been approved if Global Witness had provided the necessary identity.
Google did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
TikTok Let Through Disinformation In Political Ads Despite Its Own Ban, Global Witness Finds
Companies almost always have tougher restrictions for paid ads than for user-generated content. Global Witness’ commercials contained outright incorrect statements about the election, such as claiming that Americans can vote online, as well as deceptive material intended to suppress voting, such as assertions that voters must pass an English exam before casting a ballot. Other false ads incited violence or endangered electoral workers and processes.
Global Witness submitted text-based adverts, which the group claimed were transformed into “algospeak.” This is a common tactic used to circumvent internet corporations’ text-focused content moderation systems by swapping numbers and symbols for letters, making it more difficult for automated systems to “read” the content.
SOURCE | AP
