TikTok’s new rules ban 'undermining public trust' in government
The social media platform TikTok has revised its new community guidelines, to take effect on March 7th.
As part of those guidelines, the platform warns that it will “temporarily or permanently ban accounts and/or users that are involved in severe or repeated on-platform violations; we may also consider actions on other platforms and offline behavior in these decisions.”
The new rules include a ban on “harmful misinformation”. TikTok clarifies:
“Misinformation is defined as content that is inaccurate or false. We will remove misinformation that causes significant harm to individuals, our community, or the larger public regardless of intent. Significant harm includes...the undermining of public trust in civic institutions and processes such as governments, elections, and scientific bodies.”
TikTok’s new guidelines about “undermining public trust” in the government exactly echo the Biden administration’s view on terror.
As reported by Frontline News, the Department of Homeland Security issued a terror advisory bulletin last month. The bulletin warned of a heightened terror threat, due in part to people who are “undermining public trust in the government”.
“These threat actors seek to exacerbate societal friction to sow discord and undermine public trust in government institutions to encourage unrest, which could potentially inspire acts of violence,” the memo read.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, caters to a younger demographic, with an estimated 48% of users being in the 18-29 age group, and as much as 25% in the 10-18 age group.
An investigation is currently underway to determine the effects of TikTok on children. The probe is being spearheaded by the attorneys general of California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Tennessee, and Vermont.
“The investigation will look into the harms such usage causes to young users and what TikTok knew about those harms,” said Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson in a statement Tuesday. “The investigation focuses, among other things, on the techniques utilized by TikTok to boost young user engagement, including increasing the duration of time spent on the platform and frequency of engagement with the platform.”
The bipartisan probe, according to Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, is to see if TikTok causes harm to the "physical health and mental wellbeing” of its child and teen users, and how TikTok is “influencing their daily lives.”
