Moderation is necessary on all social media platforms, but TikTok content moderation is a bit more strict and precise, largely because of its young audience. In this post, we’ll explore how TikTok moderates content through its internal regulations and the challenges of moderating on a platform like TikTok.
Furthermore, we’ll discuss the importance for brands to have an external moderation team specific to brand commentary and user-generated discussions. A brand’s moderation strategy — notwithstanding creative or engagement efforts – should adhere to and align with the techniques TikTok’s guidelines state to keep customers safe.
Introduction to TikTok Content Moderation
TikTok content moderation uses a combination of automated systems and human moderators to enforce its community guidelines. To date, the social media giant employs over 40 thousand human moderators and is continually improving its automated systems to foster a safe community for its (mostly young) users.
TikTok has the youngest audience of all the social media platforms, with its largest user group falling between ages 10 and 19 years old. As a result, content safety is a top priority on the platform.
With its commitment to upholding safe content practices, the platform is constantly trying to find the right balance between safety, freedom of expression, and inclusivity.
The importance of content moderation on social media
Harmful content tends to go viral very quickly. This can take many forms such as hate speech, violence, nudity, and other content types. Allowing such content to spread without intervention can result in psychological and even physical harm to users, and cause them to turn away from the platform. This kind of content can also encourage destructive behavior, especially among younger users.
To guard users against such harmful effects, content moderation techniques must be taken seriously on all social platforms.
TikTok’s Content Moderation Policies
TikTok’s content moderation policies start with its community guidelines, which is a set of rules that outline what’s allowed and what’s prohibited on the platform. Both humans and automated systems are employed to check published content against the community guidelines, and either flag or simply remove content that violates the rules.
Community guidelines overview
To enforce its community guidelines, TikTok either removes, restricts, or regulates the popularity of certain content types. For instance, users under 18 years old are barred from accessing content that is not considered child-friendly. Also, content from users under 16 years old is not allowed in the platform’s FYP (For You Page). Any content that violates the community rules is removed.
Content that is considered “popular” is sometimes sent to content moderators for further review against community guidelines, just to ensure harmful content is not going viral on the platform.
Prohibited content categories
TikTok identifies a wide range of content categories as inappropriate for its users. These prohibited categories include hate speech and hateful behavior, violent behavior, sexual and physical abuse, human trafficking, suicide and self-harm, and many others. These strict guidelines are in place to help make the platform comfortable and safe, especially for a younger audience.
Age restrictions and privacy measures
Generally speaking, account creation on TikTok is limited to persons 13 years and older. However, in the United States, there is a separate TikTok experience for users under 13 years old. Once a person creates an account with a birthdate indicating they are younger than 13 years old, they are automatically placed in this category.
For this separate experience, extra safety measures are in place, such as restricting access to interactive features like messaging. Also, while these users can view videos from others and create their content, their content cannot be viewed by anyone else. As another safety measure for users in this age group, the information collected when creating an account is limited to basic personal details, and these are only shared internally or as required by law.
Practices in TikTok Content Moderation
TikTok uses a combination of automated systems and human moderators to monitor content on the platform. These systems and practices are continually being refined to reduce errors and keep unsuitable content from being circulated.
AI and machine learning in content filtering
This is TikTok’s first line of defense for guarding against prohibited content. AI technology is used to automatically detect obvious content violations through photo inspections and identifying words that can be interpreted as harmful. For clear cases of violation, the automated system removes the content, and the publisher is alerted of the removal.
In some cases, the automated system is not able to determine for certain if content violates community guidelines. In these cases, the content is flagged and passed on to human moderators for further investigation.
Each time a human moderator takes action on certain content, their decisions and reasoning are fed into the automated system, which helps to develop the system even more.
Role of human moderators
When the automated system is unable to make a decision, the content in question is passed on to a human moderator who can make context-based judgments. Also, when a regular user marks certain content as inappropriate, these user-flagged content pieces are sent to human moderators for further review. Humans are also expected to do further investigations when a user disputes content that the system removed.
Reporting and appeals process
For each video posted on the TikTok platform, there is an option beside the video for users to “report” the video if they believe it is inappropriate. These flagged videos are then sent over to content moderators for further review, and a decision is made to either remove the video or let it remain.
If a video is removed by a moderator or the automated system, the owner of that video can file an appeal for their content to be reconsidered. This process is also handled by human moderators.
Challenges and Controversies
As with any popular and global social platform, TikTok faces challenges when it comes to moderating content. This is especially the case for this platform, however, because of its young audience. Here are some of the challenges they face:
Balancing free speech and safety
To protect younger users of the platform, strict guidelines are put in place to determine what content remains and what is removed. However, though the large majority of users are considered “youth”, they are not the only users of the platform. Banning content from more mature users can lead to accusations of bias and encroaching on rights to freedom of speech, among other things.
Cultural sensitivity and regional differences
Different countries have varying standards of what’s appropriate for minors and what’s appropriate for public viewing. This makes it difficult for TikTok to maintain universal platform standards. To account for regional differences, content moderation is done in various languages by human moderators, and users can make appeals whenever they believe their content was unfairly removed.
Transparency and accountability
For the sake of transparency and retaining trust with users, TikTok makes its community guidelines available to the public. The rules and enforcement methods are laid out and made readily available online, and regular updates are provided to the public. This helps to shield against complaints surrounding bias, violation of certain rights, and unfair treatment.
Moderating TikTok as a Brand or Third Party
As TikTok takes steps to ensure the overall platform is safe for users, brands also have a responsibility to ensure they are doing the same with their individual profiles. This includes monitoring all user-generated content and comments posted on your profile, and removing or responding appropriately where necessary, in line with TikTok guidelines, regulatory and legal requirements, and your brand values. Comment monitoring and other forms of moderation can be tedious and time-consuming, so an external team of experts can make all the difference. Working with a dedicated content moderation team is not just a great way to save time and money, it’s also an effective way to protect your brand’s reputation with global coverage and an experienced team that can scale with you as you grow.
Future Directions
Amidst AI technology advancements, changing regulations for online content, global conflicts, and other trends, TikTok plans to further develop its AI system to be more precise and able to handle a larger scale with content moderation.
Enhancements in AI moderation
AI and machine learning are by nature a continuous improvement system. With tens of thousands of human moderators working alongside TikTok’s AI system, new information is constantly being fed into the system by humans, allowing it to become more accurate, efficient, and independent in its content moderation role.
Strengthening community engagement
To involve regular users in the content moderation process, TikTok encourages them to report any offensive video they find on the platform. This can be done by simply clicking the “report” button that’s beside each video and providing more details explaining why they are reporting the video. These reports are then reviewed by human moderators who can decide to remove or retain the video based on each situation.
Policies for emerging content trends
TikTok’s community guidelines are kept up-to-date to account for emerging content trends. They work with regional safety advisory councils which consist of experts who help them to develop forward-looking guidelines and features to prepare for future trends and industry issues. These groups are made up of individuals who specialize in family safety, misinformation, disinformation, online security, digital literacy, and other areas.
Conclusion
Good social media moderation is vital on any platform, both for the protection of the platform itself and for users, including businesses. However, TikTok content moderation standards are high, since its largest user base is young and considered more vulnerable.
The majority of social media platforms have internal moderation teams with standards and policies, yet outside of these larger regulations, brands on these platforms remain in control of their individual content and user commentary. As a result, both advanced technology and a team of human moderators should be employed for effective brand TikTok community management efforts.
If you’re looking to improve your business’s social media community management strategies, ICUC can help by providing expert moderation services and advanced technology to help boost your brand’s reputation online.
Ready to learn more about TikTok content moderation and how we can help? Book a meeting with us.
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