KUALA LUMPUR – TikTok moderators cannot dictate which videos will be made viral, and are not biased when it comes to moderating, said TikTok Malaysia today.
In a statement, the platform’s public policy head Hafizin Tajudin clarified that moderators neither have the authority nor access to any promotional tools for content.
“We have a robust quality assurance system in place to ensure that the political or personal opinions of our employees do not affect their work quality and ethics, including when performing content moderation tasks,” he said.
Hafizin explained that TikTok’s decisions in content moderation are according to clearly defined community guidelines, as well as checks and balances including quality assurance and third-party fact-checkers.
He said the social media platform has a list of criteria prior to approving advertisements, one of which is the prohibition of those related to politics.
This was after it strengthened its Government, Politician, and Political Party Accounts (GPPPA) policies last year.
“To that end, we do not allow paid advertisements that promote or oppose a candidate, government, current leader, political party or group – or issues at the federal, state, or local level,” Hafizin said.
Hafizin’s comments were a rebuttal to a video by Yuwana TV, an online podcast that brands itself as a “casual political discussion field”.
It was alleged in the video that TikTok usually has an automatic algorithm when determining videos to be made viral.
Yuwana TV cited an article by Forbes interviewing a former TikTok employee who alleged that the social media platform has a department that manually controls which videos go viral.
The video was shared on Twitter, where a user who goes by @cikguseo confirmed that TikTok has a “manual push” system by its moderators, following filters according to its community guidelines.
He added that something was amiss when videos that clearly violated TikTok’s guidelines could still be featured on its For You Page (FYP), a page in the platform with an ensemble of recommended content.
Nonetheless, Hafizin reiterates that TikTok moderates all content neutrally, including those of political expression, based on its community guidelines.
He added that actions will be taken to remove content that is found to be in violation of the guidelines, whether it loses its eligibility to be featured on the FYP, or be removed entirely. – The Vibes, February 28, 2023
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