TikTok spells out rules against disinformation, 'delinquent behavior'
The popular video app expands its community guidelines.
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The new community guidelines touch on everything from misinformation to safety for minors.
TikTok on Wednesday published a lengthy update to its community guidelines, aiming to clarify what content isn't allowed on the popular social video app and how the company handles moderation.
"While the language and structure of our Community Guidelines are new, the fundamental values that shape them remain unchanged," TikTok's global trust and safety team wrote in a blog post. "Our community is diverse and global, and we aim to cultivate an environment for authentic interactions."
The updated guidelines, which are structured around 10 topics, go into specifics about misleading information, saying it removes "content distributed by disinformation campaigns" and "misinformation that could cause harm to an individual's health or wider public safety." There's also a section on minor safety that reiterates users must meet the minimum age requirement, which is 13, and says content showing "underage delinquent behavior" isn't allowed.
Separately on Wednesday, security researchers identified a series of software flaws in the app that opened the door to a range of attacks on users. TikTok, which operates outside China but is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, has run into its share of controversy over the past year. Both the US Army and US Navy have banned service members from using the app on government phones because of security concerns. In February, TikTok paid $5.7 million dollars to settle US Federal Trade Commission charges that it illegally collected personal information from children.
