To combat the proliferation of fake news and covert influence operations ahead of the European Parliament elections slated for June, the ByteDance-owned social media platform TikTok has announced plans to escalate its efforts.
The platform revealed on Wednesday its intention to launch a local language application tailored for all 27 countries participating in the elections.
According to TikTok, these individual local language “election centres” are an extension of initiatives initially commenced in 2021 and further advanced last year during elections in Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, and Spain. The primary objective of this application is to enhance the electorate’s understanding of the electoral process.
With growing concerns globally regarding the dissemination of misinformation and the utilization of AI-generated deepfakes to sway election outcomes, governments and political figures have intensified their scrutiny of social media platforms. TikTok disclosed that approximately 30% of European Parliament lawmakers are active users of its platform.
Kevin Morgan, TikTok’s head of trust & safety EMEA, affirmed the forthcoming launch of localized Election Centres within the app for each EU member state. These Centres aim to facilitate easy access to reliable and authoritative information, thereby enabling users to discern fact from fiction.
Collaborating closely with local electoral commissions and civil society organizations, TikTok’s Election Centres will serve as a hub for the community to access trustworthy information. Furthermore, the company has partnered with fact-checking entities to develop educational content elucidating the electoral process and debunking misinformation.
Morgan emphasized TikTok’s commitment to expanding its fact-checking network, presently comprising nine organizations in Europe, and initiating nine additional media literacy campaigns throughout the year. Additionally, the platform intends to introduce dedicated reports on covert influence operations to enhance transparency and bolster accountability in the coming months.