TikTok’s content moderation

TikTok, the Chinese owned app, which has amassed over 1billion monthly users in three years, had build teams to moderate its streams of viral videos amid concerns that users are being expose to the kind of toxic content that has plagued YouTube and Facebook.

 TikTok will outsource decisions on what videos are acceptable to teams in the US, Europe and India after running into criticism over whether it is censoring content along Beijing guidelines.

 Eric Han, TikTok’s US head of safety said that in the US where the Chinese App has at times this year topped the download charts, responsibility for content had been localised and there were plans to add more “subject matter experts” next year.

TikTok’s $75bn parent company is ByteDance. Mr Han said TikTok was expanding its US safety team rapidly, “making sure we have the right resources people in place”. He further said that teams used a combination of automated systems and human moderators.

 

Some said that the design of TikTok as a video platform where users discovered content from strangers , not just from friends, lent itself to new ways of spreading abuse and evading detection.

The duetting feature, where users respond to an existing video by recording themselves alongside it, could be wielded for bullying or harassment according to experts.