TikTok's new community guidelines officially went into effect on Friday, May 17th. Last month, TikTok announced changes to its For You feed eligibility guidelines to limit hate speech and health misinformation. Now that these guidelines are out in the open, they should improve your scrolling experience (or, at the very least, make you watch fewer videos of Almond's mom and toxic gym buddies).
Content flagged as promoting eating disorders or conspiracy theories is no longer eligible to be promoted in the For You feed. TikTok also said creators who consistently share this type of content will be harder to find in search, according to a press release last month. The new Creator Code of Conduct also makes clear that influencers who participate in platform monetization and reward programs will be held to a higher standard of conduct than those outside of those programs.
TikTok's future in the United States remains uncertain, with the company facing new legal challenges. That hasn't stopped social media platforms from introducing new features and updates. Just recently, TikTok announced that it will implement labels on AI-generated content. TikTok also reached a new agreement with Universal Music Group, including new artist protections against AI and the return of TikTok sounds from popular artists like Billie Eilish and SZA.
Every time a social media platform updates its community guidelines or eligibility criteria, many questions arise about what is changing and what, if any, content is affected. Below, we detail the key takeaways and what you need to know about the new guidelines and eligibility criteria.
TikTok adds protections against hate speech and health misinformation
Community Guidelines are rules that govern what content is and is not allowed on the platform. TikTok has an additional layer to these guidelines that outlines what content is eligible to be recommended across the For You feed.
This is a pop-up message that TikTok sent on April 19th about changes to its community guidelines.
New to TikTok's Community Guidelines are two new standards regarding hate speech and health misinformation. The new standards state that content flagged as promoting disordered eating or conspiracy theories, such as videos about disordered eating or conspiracy theories, will not be eligible to appear in TikTok users' For You feeds.
TikTok provides several examples of what content it will exclude. When it comes to health misinformation, content that shows or describes “potentially harmful weight management behaviors” is off-limits. Videos that come to mind include people claiming to be nutritionists with questionable credentials promoting intermittent fasting. We also exclude content that promotes weight loss products, rapid weight loss exercise regimens, or cosmetic surgery without appropriate risk warnings.
TikTok's misinformation category restricts sharing of “baseless conspiracy theories that claim that certain events or situations are being carried out by secret organizations or powerful groups, such as 'governments' or 'secret societies.'” , sharing may be restricted in some cases. It was deleted. Other content that is ineligible under this standard includes posts that misrepresent the results of scientific studies (videos that claim that studies have found that vaccines are bad, when in fact studies have found the opposite) ) and the use of recycled media, such as using concert crowd footage. They claim it was a political protest.
By adding these new eligibility criteria, TikTok is trying to help you avoid falling down a potentially dangerous rabbit hole. The algorithm that creates the For You page is so powerful that if you interact with a certain type of content, TikTok will send you more of it. Limiting hate speech and health misinformation on your For You page can help you cut yourself off from the cycle of misinformation before it starts. Now that these guidelines are in place, we need to see how effective TikTok actually is at doing this.
Updates to TikTok's warning strike system
In addition to updating its community guidelines, TikTok is rolling out a new feature called “Account Check” that allows users to check their account's status on TikTok. TikTok has been using a strike system for the past year, where each violation results in a strike, and once a certain number of strikes (depending on the type of violation) is reached, the account is banned.
Account Check should make it clearer if you have any videos flagged by TikTok as violating our policies. This feature audits your account and past 30 posts and highlights content that has been flagged as violating TikTok's guidelines. You can also see if you are restricted from using certain features, such as direct messaging, live streams, or comments. You can still appeal TikTok's decision.
Learn more about how to use Meta AI on Instagram and what Threads users need to know about Fediverse.
