TikTok approves 50% of political ads containing false information: Study

Oct 18

Karah Rucker Reporter

By Karah Rucker (Reporter), Alex Delia (Producer), Zachary Hill (Video Editor)

Social media platforms TikTok and Facebook are under scrutiny for failing to detect harmful disinformation advertisements ahead of the U.S. presidential election. A new investigation by Global Witness reveals that these platforms are still allowing misleading content to slip through their moderation systems.

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In a report, Global Witness tested the election integrity commitments of TikTok, Facebook and YouTube by submitting eight advertisements containing false election claims.

Reuters

The ads were deliberately designed to breach the platforms’ policies and were submitted using “algospeak,” a technique that employs numbers and symbols to bypass content moderation filters.

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TikTok approved 50% of the submitted ads. Facebook accepted one ad with harmful disinformation, an improvement from its previous performance during the 2022 midterm elections. YouTube initially approved 50% of the ads but later blocked all of them until formal identification was submitted, a more robust barrier against disinformation compared to the other platforms.

Although TikTok has improved from approving 90% of submitted disinformation ads in 2022, its ongoing issues are particularly notable given its strict policy against political content.

The platform, already under scrutiny due to potential foreign interference, faces further examination for its role in U.S. political discourse.

TikTok acknowledged that the ads submitted by Global Witness breached its advertising policies and stated that its machine moderation system had erroneously approved them.

The platform indicated that it would use the findings to retrain its moderation system. Meta, the parent company of Facebook, did not respond to requests for comment.

Tags: 2024 Elections, AI, Artificial Intelligence, ByteDance, Deepfakes, Disinformation, Facebook, Generative AI, Meta, Misinformation, Social Media, TikTok

[Karah Rucker]

WITH JUST WEEKS UNTIL THE U-S PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION, CONCERNS ABOUT THE SPREAD OF DISINFORMATION ARE ONCE AGAIN IN THE SPOTLIGHT. A NEW REPORT REVEALS THAT MAJOR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS ARE STRUGGLING TO BLOCK HARMFUL ELECTION-RELATED ADS. PLATFORMS LIKE TIKTOK AND FACEBOOK ARE STILL ALLOWING DISINFORMATION THROUGH.

ADS LIKE THESE ARE AN EXAMPLE OF DISINFORMATION USED IN A CAMPAIGN SUPPORTING RON DESANTIS. HUMAN RIGHTS ORGANIZATION, GLOBAL WITNESS, TESTED ELECTION INTEGRITY SAFEGUARDS OF TIKTOK, FACEBOOK, AND YOUTUBE BY SUBMITTING ADS FILLED WITH DELIBERATELY FALSE CLAIMS ABOUT THE ELECTION. WHILE THE RESULTS ARE AN IMPROVEMENT, THEY ARE FAR FROM PERFECT.

TIKTOK’S APPROVAL OF HALF THE ADS WAS A MAJOR RED FLAG, APPROVING HALF OF SUBMITTED FAKE ADS… THIS COMES AS A SURPRISE SINCE THE PLATFORM HAS A STRICT POLICY BANNING POLITICAL CONTENT IN ADS. GLOBAL WITNESS SAYS THIS PERFORMANCE, WHILE BETTER THAN ITS 90-PERCENT APPROVAL RATE IN 2022, STILL FALLS SHORT OF EXPECTATIONS.

FACEBOOK’S PERFORMANCE DID IMPROVE SLIGHTLY COMPARED TO PREVIOUS YEARS, ALLOWING JUST ONE DISINFORMATION AD THROUGH, COMPARED TO MUCH HIGHER NUMBERS IN THE 2022 MIDTERMS. HOWEVER, IT STILL HIGHLIGHTS VULNERABILITIES IN THEIR SYSTEMS. YOUTUBE, ON THE OTHER HAND, SHOWED THE STRONGEST BARRIER. WHILE IT INITIALLY APPROVED 50-PERCENT OF THE ADS, NONE WERE PUBLISHED WITHOUT FORMAL IDENTIFICATION FROM THE AD SUBMITTERS, A SAFEGUARD NOT SEEN ON OTHER PLATFORMS.

DISINFORMATION AROUND ELECTIONS IS A KNOWN PROBLEM, YET THESE PLATFORMS CONTINUE TO FALL SHORT IN FULLY BLOCKING THE CONTENT. GLOBAL WITNESS DELETED THE TEST ADS BEFORE THEY COULD BE SEEN BY THE PUBLIC, BUT THEY ARGUE THAT MUCH MORE NEEDS TO BE DONE.

TIKTOK ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THEIR AUTOMATED SYSTEM HAD MISTAKENLY APPROVED THE ADS AND COMMITTED TO IMPROVING ITS MODERATION. META, THE PARENT COMPANY OF FACEBOOK, HAS NOT YET RESPONDED.

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FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS… I’M KARAH RUCKER.