TikTok tags videos with potential fake news

A new system warns the user if he stumbles upon a movie whose content has not yet been verified by the platform moderators

TikTok shows pop-up alerts when a content is not verified (images: TikTok) TikTok adopts new measures to stem the phenomenon of disinformation. From now on, if a user shares a video containing unverified information, the app will show a pop-up warning notifying viewers of the risk of running into a fake news.

The platform is already active in the field of the fight against disinformation by actively collaborating with fact-checkers of publishing realities such as PolitiFact, Lead Stories, SciVerify, Agence France-Presse (Afp), Animal Político, Estadão Verification, Logically, Newtral, Pagella Political and Teyit. When the latter report fake news, TikTok removes the offending content.

With the new move, TikTok aims to address what it calls a "gray area" in its fact-checking process. That is, those contents that the moderators are not able to immediately verify with accuracy, for example, because a news is still fresh and there is not enough data for a cross-check. In this case, a video containing potentially misleading information may still appear in the Per Te feed. Hypothesis that the app wants to avoid.

For this reason, in the case of videos with unverified but risky information, a gray banner will appear at the top of the application informing the user of a first check of the content , not yet exhaustive and definitive. At the same time, the author will receive a notification informing him that his video has been marked as unverified. If you press the Share button, a warning will appear calling for the presence of unverified content. The user will be free to choose whether to continue or put the sharing on standby.

Gina Hernandez, product manager for TikTok's security area, explains that this approach has led to a decrease of 24% in shares and 7% in likes for unverified videos.