TikTok’s algorithms are excellent at locating videos that will keep users pinned to their smart phones for long periods of time. What they aren’t so good at, according to a new report, is sensing ads that consist obvious misleading information about US polls.
Despite the fact that TikTok outlawed all political ads from its platform in 2019.
The study raises new worries about the immensely popular video-sharing app’s capacity to detect election misinformation at a moment when a burgeoning number of youth use it for more than just entertainment. The report was released on Friday by the nonprofit Global Witness as well as the Cybersecurity for Democracy team at New York University.
Global Witness as well as NYU investigated as to if some of the most renowned social platforms Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok can identify and remove totally bogus political advertisements aimed at US voters ahead of the midterm elections next month.
The watchdog group has carried out similar tests with ads comprising hate speech and deliberate misinformation in Myanmar, Kenya, Ethiopia and Brazil, however this is the first time it has done so in the U. S.
The ads in the United States contained misleading information about the election system, such as when and how individuals could vote, as well as how results of the election are counted.
They were also intended to sow doubt in the democratic system by disseminating false claims about votes being “manipulated” or decided prior to the actual Election Day.
TikTok, currently owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, fared the very worst, allowing 90% of the ads posted by the community to pass. Facebook fared better, detecting seven out of twenty false advertisements in both English and Spanish.
TikTok’s findings, in particular, were “a massive shock to us,” according to Jon Lloyd, top adviser at Global Witness, given the platform’s absolute prohibition on political ads.
TikTok said in a statement that it bans and prohibits election misinformation as well as paid political advertising on its platform.
“We appreciate input from NGOs, scholars, as well as other experts because it allows us to continue improving our procedures and policies,” the company stated.
The vast bulk of the ads submitted for approval by Global Witness were discovered and removed by Facebook’s systems.
“These findings were premised on a very tiny subset of ads and aren’t reflective provided the volume of political ads we review everyday across the globe,” Facebook explained.
“Our ad review process includes multiple layers of evaluation and detection, both prior to and after an ad is published.” It also stated that it invests “substantial resources” in election security.
In the meantime, YouTube identified and removed all of the troublesome ads, and went ahead to suspend the test account that Global Witness used to post the fake ads in question.
At the same time, the Alphabet-owned video site did not discover any of the group’s false or deceptive election advertisements that were submitted for review in Brazil.
“That just illustrates the fact that there is a real global disparity in their capability to enforce their own policies,” Lloyd explained.
Google stated that it has “established extensive measures to counter misleading information” on its platforms, including falsified election as well as voting claims.
In 2021, the company stated in a press statement, “we blocked or excluded upwards of 3.4 billion ads for having violated our policies, including 38 million for contravening our misrepresentation policy.”
“We understand how critical it is to safeguard our users from this type of abuse, especially in advance of major elections such as those in the United States as well as Brazil, and we are continuing to invest in and enhance our compliance systems to better identify and remove this content.”
According to Lloyd, the consequences of failing to control misleading information would be widely spread.
“The implications of failure to act might be catastrophic for our democracies, our planet, and our society as a whole,” Lloyd warned. “Increased partisanship and everything else.” I’m not sure what it will take for them to succeed.
