TikTok posted information titled: “Advancing our approach to user safety”. The post informs users that TikTok will begin introducing technology to automatically remove content that violates their Community Standards. As of today, TikTok will bring these systems to the US and Canada as the company works to advance the safety of their community.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll begin using technology to automatically remove some types of violative content identified upon upload, and in addition to removals confirmed by our Safety Team. Automation will be reserved for categories where our technology has the highest degree of accuracy, starting with violations of our policies on minor safety, adult nudity and sexual activities, violent and graphic content, and illegal activities and regulated goods.
One of the reasons TikTok is choosing to use automated technologies on uploaded content – before it goes live – is to spare their moderators from having to view it. I think we can all understand why having to view the worst things on the internet – as requirement of a person’s job – would cause harm to those who cannot opt-out of seeing it.
TikTok also clarified how users will be notified of Community Guidelines violations. The new system counts the violations accrued by a user and is based on the severity and frequency of the violations. People will be notified of the consequence(s) of their violation(s), starting in the Account Updates section of their Inbox. A record of their accrued violations will be shown there.
First violation: TikTok sends a warning in the app, unless the violation is a zero-tolerance policy, which will result in an automatic ban.
After the first violation:
Suspend an account’s ability to upload a video, comment or edit their profile for 24 or 48 hours, depending on the severity of the violation and previous violations.
Or, restrict an account to a view-only experience for 72 hours or up to one week, meaning the account can’t post or engage with content.
Or, after several violations, a user will be notified that their account is on the verge of being banned. If the behavior persists, the account will be permanently removed.
TikTok may also block a device to prevent future accounts from being created.