TikTok Updates Community Guidelines with New AI Rules

TikTok is refreshing its Community Guidelines to address concerns regarding synthetic media, hate speech and election integrity.  

“These principles guide our decisions about how we moderate content so that we can strive to be fair in our actions, protect human dignity, and strike a balance between freedom of expression and preventing harm,” the company wrote in a blog post.  

As a way to address misinformation surrounding AI-driven synthetic media, the video streaming platform will require manipulated content depicting realistic scenes to be disclosed as “synthetic,” “fake,” “not real” or “altered.”  

TikTok is also banning synthetic media from portraying public figures if they are used for endorsements or violates other policies. “This includes prohibitions on hate speech, sexual exploitation, and serious forms of harassment,” the guidelines wrote.  

The social media app has also added ‘tribe’ as a protected attribute in its hate speech and hateful behavior policies, taking into account culturally sensitive content and combatting misinformation by protecting government, politician and political party accounts. 

The new guidelines will take effect on April 21, while providing additional training for its content moderators over the next few months.  

The policy changes come as the social media app faces is urged to sell its stakes or risk being banned in the U.S. over data privacy and cybersecurity concerns. 

Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s CEO, will face the congress on Thursday, March 23.