TikTok gets into kindness

The TikTok video-sharing plaform, which is synonymous with people expressing themselves creatively and connecting with others, has its fair share of harassment and cyber-bullying. 

To help foster kindness in its community, as TikTok did when raising awareness around anti-bullying and harassment with its #SharingPositivity campaign, the platform is rolling out two new features.

The first feature gives creators more control over the comments on their videos, and the second prompts people to reconsider posting unkind or inappropriate comments.

TikTok has also introduced a feature to help stop the spread of misinformation on the platform.

1. More power to control comments

Creators put their heart and soul into creating content millions of people love, and TikTok is working to give them even more control over their content. With the new Filter All Comments feature, creators can decide which comments will appear on their videos. When enabled, comments will not be displayed unless the video’s creator approves them using the new comment management tool.

Furthermore, this feature builds on TikTok’s existing collection of comment controls that allow people to filter spam and offensive comments, and specific keywords. Comments are an important way for community members to connect with creators, and TikTok continues to develop ways to promote respectful discussion.

2. Consider before you comment

In addition to empowering creators with more tools, TikTok also wants to encourage its community to treat everyone with kindness and respect. A new comment prompt now asks people to reconsider posting a comment that may be inappropriate or unkind. It also reminds users about TikTok’s Community Guidelines and allows them to edit their comments before sharing.

3. Know your facts before sharing

At TikTok we partner with fact checkers such as Lead Stories to help us assess the accuracy of content and will remove misinformation as we identify it. If fact checks confirm content to be false, we’ll remove the video from our platform. 

Sometimes fact checks are inconclusive or content is not able to be confirmed, especially during unfolding events. In these cases, a video may become ineligible for recommendation into anyone’s For You feed to limit the spread of potentially misleading information.

In an effort to take a step further to stop the spread of misinformation on the platform, TikTok recently launched a new feature to help inform viewers when the platform identifies a video with unsubstantiated content in an effort to reduce sharing.

Here’s how it works: 

• First, a viewer will see a banner on a video if the content has been reviewed but cannot be conclusively validated.  

• The video’s creator will also be notified that their video was flagged as unsubstantiated content.

• If a viewer attempts to share the flagged video, they’ll see a prompt reminding them that the video has been flagged as unverified content. This additional step requires a pause for people to consider their next move before they choose to “cancel” or “share anyway.”  

For more information, read the full blog post here: https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-us/new-prompts-to-help-people-consider-before-they-share