TikTok to crack down on climate disinformation

The social media platform has made the changes ahead of Earth Day on Saturday (22 April). In a blog post, TikTok confirmed that it has developed a specific misinformation policy...


TikTok to crack down on climate disinformation

The social media platform has made the changes ahead of Earth Day on Saturday (22 April).

In a blog post, TikTok confirmed that it has developed a specific misinformation policy on climate change, adding to existing policies on topics such as public health, medicine and violent events.

Content which “undermines well-established scientific consensus, such as denying the existence of climate change or the factors that contribute to it” will be removed from the platform.

“As we do for all misinformation policies, we will work with independent fact-checking partners when applying this policy to help assess the accuracy of content,” TikTok’s blog post states.

With immediate effect, TikTok will also begin directing users who search for climate-related terms to videos from sources deemed authoritative. The social media behemoth has worked with the UN to identify which sources are authoritative, including the UN’s own bodies and trusted academic platforms.

A spokesperson for the business said: “At TikTok, we tackle misinformation through a multi-pronged approach – and we believe that taken holistically, these updates will help empower accurate climate discussions on TikTok and reduce harmful misinformation.”

TikTok has already implemented misinformation policies regarding topics such as Covid-19 and other public health issues,  and the Holocaust and other violent historical events.

In addition to the new climate literacy interventions, to mark Earth Day, TikTok will be hosting a livestream featuring representatives from the Met Office and Earthtopia, providing the key facts and stats about the climate crisis to listeners. Those tuned in will be able to ask questions live about climate solutions at scale, and about the individual actions they can take.

Around this time last year, Pinterest introduced its own guidelines aimed at ending the circulation of climate-related misinformation, in what it claimed was a first for social media platforms of its size. It modelled these guidelines on learnings from existing bans on political advertisements, weight-loss advertisements and health misinformation. edie subsequently interviewed Pinterest’s global sustainability lead Mia Ketterling, for an exclusive which you can read here.

Comments (1)

  1. Maggie says:

    Love that pinterest has lead the way on fighting climate misinformation. Stellar social media platform

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