TikTok has announced updates to their Community Guidelines that further clarify the rules along with new features that help creators learn policies and check their account status.
It is not hidden knowledge that creators play a fundamental role in helping maintain a safe and entertaining environment for everyone on TikTok.
The focus is to empower people with information about policies and tools so they can safely express themselves and connect with others.
Community Guidelines are the rules and standards that apply to everything and everyone TikTok.
This update, which will take effect on the 17th of May 2024, builds on ongoing work to improve understanding and bring greater transparency about the rules and how the organization will enforce them.
In this latest iteration, TikTok has added and updated definitions to clarify her policies, like those regarding hate speech and health misinformation.
They’ve also included more detail about how they moderate TikTok features such as Search, LIVE, and the For You feed.
‘For You’ eligibility standards are updated as well. This helps to create a safer For You feed experience that’s suitable for a broad audience on TikTok.
They’re introducing a policy to make an entire account temporarily ineligible for recommendation in the For You feed if a creator repeatedly posts content that goes against the For You feed standards.
Their account and content will be harder to find in search.
They will notify creators when their accounts have been restricted in this way, and creators will be able to appeal.
“We always look for opportunities to help creators better understand our unique rules and have introduced a warning strike when a creator violates our Community Guidelines for the first time”, says Adam Presser, TikTok’s head of Operations, Trust and Safety. “The warning strike does not count toward an account’s strike tally, but any future violations will. We notify creators about which rule they’ve broken and how they can appeal if they believe a mistake has been made. Zero-tolerance policies (for example, incitement to violence) aren’t eligible for these reminders; accounts will immediately be banned”, he further explained.
TikTok will also be making it easier for creators to check their account status as they begin to roll out ‘Account Check’.
This is a new feature that will enable creators to quickly audit their account and their last 30 posts and see at a glance whether they are in good standing on TikTok.
Account Check will also include information about whether access to certain features, like comments or direct messaging, has been restricted due to violations.
Creators will also be able to see whether their content has been removed for breaking our rules or has been restricted from reaching the For You feed.
With this information, creators can both better understand how their content and behaviour may have affected their standing on the platform and how they can appeal decisions if they believe TikTok got it wrong.
This is in addition to the existing “Account status” page, introduced last year, which lists a creator’s video violations.
What’s more? They’re also publishing the TikTok Creator Code of Conduct, which will take effect in the coming weeks.
These are the standards that they expect creators involved in TikTok programs, features, events and campaigns to follow on and off-platform, in addition to their Community Guidelines and Terms of Service.
TikTok believes that being a part of these programs is an opportunity that comes with additional responsibilities, and this code will also help provide creators with additional reassurance that other participants are meeting these standards, too.
Adam Presser concludes, “We’ll continue to focus on helping our community, and in particular our creators, better understand what our rules are and how we enforce them to provide a safer experience for over a billion people on TikTok”.
