Troubling Findings: TikTok Approves Disinformation Ads Ahead Of European Elections

In a scathing report, the international campaign group Global Witness has revealed that TikTok, the wildly popular social media platform, has failed to detect and stop the spread of political disinformation on its platform, raising serious concerns about its ability to protect the integrity of upcoming European elections.

The report shows that Global Witness created 16 ads targeting Irish audiences with false information about this week’s EU elections and submitted them to three major platforms: TikTok, YouTube, and Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter).

While YouTube caught 14 of the ads and X filtered all of them, TikTok, known for its massive user base, particularly among young voters, approved all 16 ads for publication.

The fake ads contained a range of misleading and potentially damaging content, including warnings to voters about poll violence and disease outbreaks, a fabricated notice about the legal voting age being raised to 21, and instructions to vote by email, which is not permitted in European elections.

In response, TikTok acknowledged the ads violated its policies, citing “human error” by a moderator as the reason for their approval.

European Union’s Digital Services Act

The platform claimed that its systems had correctly identified the breach, but the ads were still published due to this lapse.

This failure to detect and remove the disinformation ads raises serious concerns about TikTok’s ability to fulfill its obligations under the European Union’s Digital Services Act, which requires major platforms to take action to reduce the risk of electoral interference.

Henry Peck, a senior campaigner at Global Witness, expressed surprise at TikTok’s inability to catch the problematic ads, given the platform’s past track record of identifying and removing content that violates its rules.

Peck warned that it is “absolutely vital” for social media platforms to address the growing threat of disinformation, especially in a year packed with major elections.

The report serves as a wake-up call for TikTok and other social media platforms, underscoring the urgent need to strengthen their systems and processes to detect and combat the spread of political misinformation.

As the European elections approach, the public will be watching closely to see if these platforms can step up and fulfill their responsibilities to protect the integrity of the democratic process.

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