Users circumvent TikTok policies by finding workarounds for publishing toxic content

While many outlets are focusing on the Facebook Papers, The Economist found parallels between the issues Facebook is facing with the ones TikTok is uncovering. As a younger app, TikTok has the possibility to learn from previous social media hits. Yet what is making them so successful is also what is allowing potentially harmful videos to become viral. Our research on how TikTok Sounds can live on the app, even if an original video is deemed as violating community guidelines, is referenced in this article.

Some of our research on TikTok has explored the inconsistency in labeling misleading COVID-19 information on the app, or the app’s failure to take action against extremist content. We have also documented a wide range of hate speech and extremism on the app in our report: “Hatescape: An In-Depth Analysis of Extremism and Hate Speech on TikTok.”