The Italian authorities announced on Tuesday the opening of an investigation into the TikTok social network, accusing it of allowing the dissemination of “dangerous content that encourages suicide, self-mutilation and the development of eating disorders” after the popularization of a challenge known as the ” french scar”.
The investigation, carried out by the Competition Authority, focuses on the Irish company TikTok Technology Limited, responsible for relations with European consumers, and the English and Italian subsidiaries, the statement said.
The Italian headquarters of TikTok was searched this Tuesday by the financial police, deciding to open the investigation due to the presence on the platform of “numerous videos of young people who adopt self-mutilation behaviors”, such as the recent challenge to mark their own faces with the so-called “French scar”, which went viral.
The challenge, which has spawned several tutorials on TikTok, involves pinching your cheekbones hard and long enough to cause a bruise but can leave permanent marks, a practice considered dangerous by doctors.
The Italian authority criticizes TikTok for not having implemented adequate systems to monitor content, “especially in the presence of particularly vulnerable users, such as minors.”
TikTok did not “apply its own rules, which include the removal of dangerous content related to challenges, suicides, self-harm and eating disorders,” the Italians stress in a press release.
A TikTok spokesman, quoted by Reuters, denies the accusations and ensures that the social network “does not allow” content of this nature: “More than 40,000 dedicated security professionals work to keep our community safe and we take special care to protect users adolescents in particular”. .”
Guidelines have been updated
This Tuesday, the social network announced an update to its guidelines to strengthen the safety of the community, which include content moderation and a commitment between freedom of expression and security.
“Based on the defense of human rights and in line with international legal frameworks, TikTok has updated its ‘Community Guidelines'[princípios comunitários]”, announced today the social network owned by the Chinese ByteDance, noting that “the news is reflected in the context of content moderation, the protection of the dignity of its creators and the establishment of a commitment between freedom of expression and the security”.
The updates will take effect a month from now, on April 21.
“Over the coming months, all content moderators on the platform will receive additional information to help effectively apply each of these rules and standards, as they are applied,” advances TikTok, noting that four pillars have been defined. in moderation approach.
These pillars are “remove violent content”; “restrict age-restricted content to adult viewing only (this must also comply with our Community Principles)”; make content “ineligible for feed recommendation for you that’s not appropriate for a wide audience; and “provide our community with tools and information resources that allow them to maintain full control of their experience,” explains the social network, in the statement.
It adds that it “reached out to more than 100 organizations around the world and members of the community with the aim of strengthening the response to possible threats and damage” and that some of the changes in the principles of the community refer to new rules on how TikTok treats content-producing users that use artificial intelligence (AI), such as ‘bots’ and reinforcing the sense of ‘tribe’ “as a protective attribute against hate speech policies and hateful conduct.
It also includes “details about work to protect civic and electoral integrity, including the treatment of government accounts, policies, and political parties.”
The updated guidelines extend “even to the law enforcement strategy: sharing more information about decisions related to accounts that violate the rules and clarifying that we do not allow the use of multiple accounts, to intentionally circumvent our rules or their application” . explains TikTok.
“These updates offer our community a greater transparency of the rules of use and how we apply them. All the communities and specialists that work with us contribute actively to the safety of both users and to respond to potential threats”, continue to social network.
TikTok has been in the spotlight lately due to the ban on the application on devices both by the European Commission, the United States and other countries, where the most recent case is that of the British BBC, which gave instructions to their employees to uninstall the social network.
Source: TSF
