TikTok may be the second most popular domain in the world, according to online performance and security company Cloudflare, exceeded only by Google, unfortunately, a new report suggests that the videos on the platform contained misinformation when it came to videos related to news topics.
According to a research report published Wednesday, while TikTok may be the platform of choice for catchy videos, but anyone using it to learn about Covid-19, climate change or Russia's invasion of Ukraine is likely to encounter misleading information, The Associated Press reported.
According to the researchers at NewsGuard, they searched for content about prominent news topics on TikTok and say they found that nearly 1 in 5 of the videos automatically suggested by the platform contained misinformation. Notably, the searches for information about “mRNA vaccine," for instance, yielded five videos (out of the first 10) that contained misinformation, including baseless claims that the Covid-19 vaccine causes “permanent damage in children's critical organs.”
Researchers looking for information about abortion, the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, climate change or Russia's invasion of Ukraine on TikTok found similarly misleading videos scattered among more accurate clips, The Associated Press report further noted.
Additionally, the amount of misinformation — and the ease with which it can be found — is especially troubling given TikTok's popularity with young people, according to Steven Brill, founder of NewsGuard, a firm that monitors misinformation, the report said.
Meanwhile, TikTok reportedly released a statement in response to NewsGuard's report noting that its community guidelines prohibit harmful misinformation and that it works to promote authoritative content about important topics like Covid-19. “We do not allow harmful misinformation, including medical misinformation, and we will remove it from the platform,” the company said.
It is worth noting that TikTok has taken other steps that it says are intended to direct users to trustworthy sources, The Associated Press report said. The platform removed more than 102 million videos that violated its rules in the first quarter of 2022, and yet only a tiny percentage of those ran afoul of TikTok's rules against misinformation, the report said.
(With inputs from The Associated Press, NewsGuard)
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