The social network TikTok, which is used by 2.4 million people in the Czech Republic every month, will tighten measures to protect the integrity of the platform against misinformation ahead of October parliamentary elections, said company representatives at a press conference today.
The company said it has global and local teams monitoring election-related content and is working with Czech and European partners to expose misinformation and increase media literacy.
According to Piotr Zaczek, TikTok’s communications manager for Central and Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic is one of TikTok’s fastest growing markets in the region. According to the company, elections and politics are becoming an increasingly popular topic, with users starting to search for related information more intensively a few months before the elections.
TikTok says it enforces community principles and removes content that violates rules regarding the integrity of elections and civic processes. In the first half of this year, 98.8% of objectionable content in the Czech Republic was removed before users reported it, and 95.7% within 24 hours, according to Lukasz Gabler, TikTok’s public policy and government relations manager for the CEE region. Nearly 78% of problematic videos received no views.
TikTok’s rules include removing misinformation about the electoral process, banning manipulated content including AI output, and mandating the labeling of realistic AI-generated content. The platform cooperates with 12 European fact-checking organisations, including dpa, Demagog and Thomson Reuters.
The measure also includes a so-called in-app voting centre that will provide users with verified information. A search guide will appear when searching for election keywords, and information labels will accompany videos with election hashtags.
The company says that content moderation is primarily provided by artificial intelligence systems. If the AI fails to make a decision, human teams trained in the rules step in.
Political accounts on the platform cannot place ads, enter into paid partnerships or raise money. TikTok authenticates them to prevent impersonation of politicians.
According to TikTok representatives, user education is essential. “The goal is to highlight the risks and teach people to distinguish facts from false information. Strengthening media literacy is therefore described as one of the most important steps TikTok wants to take in connection with the elections,” Gabler added.
TikTok is a Chinese social network that focuses on short videos and is one of the fastest growing platforms in the world. The app was developed by ByteDance and now has over a billion monthly active users. The platform has long faced privacy and data security concerns stemming from its Chinese ownership.
