TikTok has announced user updates that will support the safety of its community and foster kindness on the app. While millions of fans converge daily on the app to get entertained or create content, TikTok wants to set a community foundation that is built on kindness, respect and understanding. Carmac Keenan, Head of Trust and Safety at TikTok says, ” To help people forge positive digital connections in line with our rules for appropriate behaviour on our platform, we strive to empower our community members to stay in control of their interactions with others on TikTok” Will the guidelines be enough to keep the space safe for users? For a while now, TikTok has been keen to expand its safety guidelines including banning some of the content that the fan base feels unsafe for use. For instance, in 2021, TikTok successfully discontinued the milk crate challenge that went viral sometime in the year due to safety complaints. According to the Q4 2021 community guidelines enforcement report, TikTok has steadily made progress on removing violations before they receive a single view. For instance, from Q1 to Q4 2021, the removal of content at zero views improved by 14.7 per cent for harassment and bullying content, 10.9% for hateful behaviour, 16.2% for violent extremism, and 7.7% for suicide, self-harm, and dangerous acts. TikTok says, “There’s no finish line when it comes to keeping people safe, and our latest report and continued safety improvements reflect our ongoing commitment to the safety and well-being of our community. We look forward to sharing more about our ongoing work to safeguard our platform.”
New safety guidelines on the app
some of the community safety guidelines TikTok is putting in place include:
Fostering authentic engagement in comments
Besides proactively removing abusive and hateful content or behaviour that violates the TikTok Community Guidelines, TikTok has continued to explore new ways to help its community feel more in control over comments. “We’ve started testing a way to let individuals identify comments they believe to be irrelevant or inappropriate. This community feedback will add to the range of factors we already use to help keep the comment section consistently relevant and a place for genuine engagement. To avoid creating ill-feeling between community members or demoralising creators, only the person who registered a dislike on a comment will be able to see that they have done so.”
New safety reminders for creators
TikTok is experimenting with reminders that will guide creators on comment filtering, bulk blocking and delete options to make it easier for the community to find and use the built-in safety tools. The reminders will be shown to creators whose videos appear to be receiving a high proportion of negative comments report comments or accounts individually or in bulk for TikTok to review. The feature is still under review and once ready, TikTok update on the outcome and whether the feature will roll out in full in the coming weeks. This work is in addition to the many tools already available on community guidelines With this option, community members will be able to choose to filter all comments for manual review or filter comments that contain select keywords. Creators can also select who can comment on their content from Everyone, Friends or No One. The ‘Everyone’ setting is not available to those aged below 16.
Upholding Community Guidelines
TikTok has also released the Q4 2021 Community Guidelines Enforcement Report. This report reflects the company’s ongoing commitment to earning the trust of its community by being accountable when it comes to keeping the platform safe and welcoming.
