How we're protecting election integrity on TikTok

TikTok is an entertainment platform defined by the diversity of our community and the content they enjoy. As more than 2 billion people in over 50 countries head to the polls this year, including across Europe, we're deeply invested in protecting the integrity of elections on TikTok.

These are important moments of community conversations, and our focus is on ensuring that TikTok continues to be a creative, safe and civil place for our community. Today, we're providing insight into the work we put into protecting our community and our platform's integrity.

Political ads aren't allowed on TikTok

We do not allow political advertisements from any account nor do we allow accounts belonging to governments, politicians or political parties (GPPPAs) to make money on TikTok. Accounts belonging to politicians and political parties will automatically have their access to advertising features turned off.

We do still welcome political and electoral user-generated content that aligns with our Community Guidelines. In fact, many European leaders, ministers and political parties are on the platform, including approximately 30% of Members of European Parliament (MEPs). We believe that verified accounts belonging to politicians and institutions provide additional trusted voices in the shared fight against misinformation.

Advertisers can use TikTok's Inventory Filter Solution to gain more control over the content that appears next to their ads in the For You Feed. Selecting the 'Limited' tier filter will reduce appearance next to organic political content.

Our approach to protecting election integrity

An important part of our approach is empowering our community with access to authoritative information. We believe collaboration helps strengthen our efforts to protect against harm and misuse on our platform, which is why we work with an array of experts and organisations.

We work with eleven fact-checking organisations in Europe, who assess the accuracy of content in 18 European languages. When content is unverified, we may label it, reduce its reach by making it ineligible for For You feeds, and prompt people to reconsider sharing it until there’s more information.

We also invest in educational campaigns to counter misinformation. In 2023, we worked with local partners to run 18 media literacy campaigns across Europe, reaching approximately 50 million people on TikTok. By the end of this year, our communities in every one of the 27 EU member states will have access to localised educational videos from our partners and local creators about how to be vigilant against misinformation.

How we're preparing for the EU elections

In June 2024, the elections for the European Parliament will take place, where many millions of TikTok users from the 27 EU member states will vote to decide their political direction. That is why we've put comprehensive measures in place to anticipate and address the risks associated with electoral processes.

Our teams work alongside technology to ensure that we're consistently enforcing our rules to detect and remove harmful misinformation and disruptive actors. We've also established a centralised space in our Dublin office to bring together key teams involved in the election monitoring process and maximise the effectiveness of our election integrity work.

This year we launched a local language Election Centre in-app for each of the 27 individual EU Member States to ensure people can easily separate fact from fiction. The Election Centres will be a place where our community can find trusted and authoritative information.

Our work to keep users informed doesn't end here

We are deeply invested in protecting the integrity of elections on TikTok. Over the last 4 years, we have worked to support the TikTok community during more than 150 elections around the world.

For more on how we combat misinformation, see our newly expanded Transparency Centre page, or to learn more about our approach to removing content on the platform, head to our quarterly Community Guidelines Enforcement Reports.