TikTok Türkiye unveils disinformation measures ahead of local elections

ISTANBUL

TikTok Türkiye has announced the establishment of a team to monitor and remove content that manipulates news or disseminates disinformation regarding the local elections slated for March 31.

According to a written statement on March 18 by Emir Gele, TikTok's representative to the Middle East, Africa and Türkiye, the measures announced by the platform less than two weeks before the elections also include collaboration with a widely known content verification platform in the country called teyit.org.

As of July 2023, Türkiye has approximately 30 million TikTok users, ranking among the top countries in terms of platform usage worldwide.

On election day, the platform will collaborate with teyit.org to reduce the visibility of content making premature victory claims before results are confirmed by relevant institutions, Gelen said.

Emphasizing efforts of the platform to block misleading content, misinformation, disinformation and manipulated content, Gelen stated that TikTok removes content “aimed at intimidating voters or preventing them from voting.”

Gelen noted that they have also facilitated users in reporting misleading content directly through the application, adding that there is a dedicated team to review reports in line with their misinformation policies.

Moreover, TikTok redirects users to authoritative sources for accurate information upon reporting content pertaining to unverified political entities or electoral matters within the app. Gelen further noted the inclusion of alerts guiding users to an election guide when encountering content featuring unverifiable claims about voting procedures.