TikTok Fights Fake News And Covert Influence Ahead Of EU Elections

(CTN News) – The ByteDance-owned social media platform TikTok announced on Wednesday it would increase its efforts to combat fake news and covert influence operations leading up to the European Parliament elections in June.

According to Tiktok, the local language “election centres” build on the work that was begun in 2021, which was accelerated last year following elections in Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, and Spain.

With the app, European citizens will have a better understanding of how the electoral process works.

Politicians and governments around the world are concerned about the spread of misinformation and the use of AI-generated deepfakes to influence elections, and specifically the role of social media platforms.

It has been estimated that about 30% of the members of the European Parliament use TikTok, according to the company.

In a blog post, TikTok’s head of trust & safety EMEA Kevin Morgan stated: “Next month, we will launch an Election Centre in-app for each of the 27 Member States of the European Union so that people can easily distinguish fact from fiction.”

” We will develop these Election Centers in collaboration with our local electoral commissions and civil society organizations in an effort to serve as a reliable source of information for our community,” he said.

During previous national elections, the company worked with news checkers to produce educational videos about the electoral process and the spread of misinformation through election centers.

During the coming year, Morgan said that TikTok will expand its fact-checking network and launch nine more media literacy campaigns as part of its fact-checking affiliate network, which is currently working with nine fact-checking organizations in Europe.

As part of its efforts to increase transparency and accountability, the company plans to develop reports dedicated to its covert influence operations as part of its efforts to improve transparency and accountability.

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