INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
As TikTok continues its rapid United States growth, the company is being challenged to better explain its content moderation choices
Why, for example, is the short-form video app censoring the Hong Kong protests but not United States political content? Why is it banning
political ads, but supports hashtags like #trump2020 and #maga, each with millions, or even hundreds of millions, of views? TikTok so far
has struggled to answer these questions
Now, it hoping to change that with the formation of a new committee of experts who will help TikTok craft its content moderation policies
and increase transparency around these topics and others that afflict popular social media platforms.
That is to say, the committee focus
won''t only be on political censorship — that just the most important, hot-button issue facing TikTok in the United States
today.
However, TikTok says the new committee will advise across a wider range of issues beyond censorship, including also child safety,
hate speech, misinformation, bullying and other potential issues, both existing and those yet to come.
To aid in this, the company is
working with a group from corporate law firm K-L Gates, including former Congressmen Bart Gordon and former United States House Rep., now
government affairs counselor, Jeff Denham, who bring to the initiative their expertise in the technology sector.
K-L Gates was chosen for
this initiative after TikTok talked to several firms for some time
It says that K-L Gates made the cut because it was considered to be a top-five public affairs firm with an outstanding reputation, and
because Bart Gordon previous role as chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology, in particular, offered TikTok strong
expertise in the space.
TikTok says its committee, which has not yet been formed, will look to include outside and independent voices to
help it better craft its policies
It couldn''t identify who else would be on the committee as those people haven''t been selected.
The committee will focus on helping TikTok
strengthen its own internal moderation teams, moderation and content policies, and overall transparency, the company says.
TikTok is beloved
because it provides an outlet for creative expression and a uniquely genuine and inspiring app experience
It amazingly rewarding to know that we&re bringing joy to so many — but it also brings great responsibility on our part,& said TikTok
United States General Manager Vanessa Pappas, in a statement
&We are committed to meeting this responsibility fully,& she added.
Initially, TikTok will create the committee of outside experts with the
help of its new advisors at K-L Gates
It will then work to increase its transparency around content moderation and continue to build out a deeper bench of internal leaders in
order to tackle the challenges caused by its rapid expansion.
Asked if an entirely new set of policies would be the result of this activity,
a spokesperson couldn''t say, noting that a decision on that front will be the role of the committee.
This effort has been in the works for
some time, and is not a result of the increasing amount of bad press about the censorship on TikTok platform.
Bytedance says that it
censorship of HK protest content on #TikTok is simply consistent with their broader policy of censoring all political content.
And
yet:#Trump2020: 115.1m views#maga: 83.4m views#blacklivesmatter: 16.4m views#antielab: 4735 views
I smell bullshit
pic.twitter.com/TBTkFPcOUT
mdash; Elliott Zaagman (@ElliottZaagman) October 14, 2019
But the decision to announce the news of a committee
formation is an attempt by TikTok to help manipulate the narrative here
The reality, however, is that TikTok isn''t censoring all political content or just the &non-fun& stuff, as it would have you believe.
If
that were true, then there would be no TikTok hashtags focused on United States politics — like #dumptrump or #trumptrain, for example
Nor would the app offer hashtags for causes like #blacklivesmatter or its controversial counterslogan with racist undertones,
All these and more are in the app today, with hundreds of millions of combined views.
TikTok announcement comes at a time when the company
is again coming under the eye of the United States government and regulators
The app was already fined $5.7 million for children privacy law (COPPA) violations
Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin Wednesday requesting that the Committee on Foreign Investment in the
United States look into ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, for its 2017 acquisition of Musical.ly
The letter claims that there is &growing evidence& that TikTok United States platform is engaging in censorship.
TikTok, before today, had
admitted its content guidelines were outdated and no longer used, and said it took a localized approach to its moderation choices
But a hashtag like #hongkong in TikTok shows &barely a hint of unrest,& The Washington Post recently reported
With legal — and soon, independent — advice and strategic consulting in the works, TikTok hopes to figure out how a Chinese-owned app
can participate in the democratic United States social media market, without becoming another mouthpiece for the Chinese Communist
Party.
None of the controversies around TikTok seem to be impacting its growth in the United States , however
TikTok in September was the No
3 most-downloaded (non-game) app in the United States , ahead of Facebook and Messenger, according to Sensor Tower
1 social media app worldwide at that time.
