TikTok Adds "suspicious" Video Warning Labels To Strictly Prevent The Spread Of Harmful Information

TikTok officially announced on February 3 that it would be the first to launch new video warning labels in the United States and Canada to reduce users’ forwarding and sharing of unverified content, thereby purifying TikTok’s community environment. This initiative will be rolled out globally in the coming weeks.

After experiencing several serious public relations crises, TikTok resolutely joined the fight to limit the spread of online misinformation. It is understood that TikTok has deleted original video content containing false information on the platform and has established partnerships with fact-finding websites such as PolitiFact, Lead Stories and SciVerify to help TikTok screen and review video content.

TikTok’s new “suspicious” video warning prompts will appear in the following different situations:

First, when a TikTok user watches an unverified short video, the user will receive a prompt such as "Warning: This video is marked as unverified content";

Second, creators of unverified video content will also be notified that warning labels have been added to their videos, along with details about unverified content;

Finally, when users want to share this suspicious video externally, they will also receive a pop-up window as shown above, asking the user "Are you sure you want to share this video?" Users can also check the "Cancel" button below the question. ” or “Share anyway” option.

Coincidentally, this feature of TikTok is somewhat similar to a prompt that Twitter added in June 2020 that automatically pops up when users repost content that they have not actually read.

(Twitter’s retweet prompt)

Twitter said that the "friction" created by this prompt has had a good effect in increasing the opening rate and completion rate of articles and limiting the spread of misinformation. Among them, Twitter users' opening rate of platform articles increased by 40%. .

TikTok's user base in overseas markets has grown rapidly in recent years. Some organizations predict that its number of users will reach 1 billion in 2021. Therefore, some inflammatory information will easily spread around the world through TikTok. TikTok is now Taking this measure can not only help maintain the clarity of the online world, but also avoid some minefields for its long-term development.

In fact, TikTok also expressed satisfaction with the effect of this move. Gina Hernandez, TikTok's trust and safety product manager, wrote in a blog post: "In testing, this content warning reduced the likelihood of users sharing videos by 24% and the rate of likes for unverified content. It’s also down 7%.”

It seems that sellers who are and plan to use TikTok to attract traffic should pay more attention to whether the short video content is compliant and has been effectively reviewed, so as not to damage the dissemination efficiency of the video content and thus affect product sales.