According to recent reports, TikTok is employing a
two-tiered moderation system that gives preferential treatment to
influencers, celebrities and other VIPs. This is according to
leaked audio recordings of internal TikTok meetings in 2021. This
more lenient policy enforcement system has used dedicated queues to
prioritise and protect the posts of people with more than 5 million
followers when they break TikTok’s content rules.
TikTok is creating a dangerous precedent with its moderation
system whereby the number of views ultimately determines what can
be posted and whose accounts will be given more leniency in the
content posted.
Although many users will say that they agree that influencers
and VIPs should be given leniency to the rules as it ensures users
get “real” content, it presents a risk in having
unacceptable content being posted. In today’s age where
accounts are easily hacked, an influencer or celebrity’s
account can be used to spread protected, private, unacceptable,
illegal or immoral content.
In doing so, TikTok could open itself up to fines from
regulatory bodies such as local broadcasting complaints bodies or
data protection bodies, and further litigation from users. In
addition, an influencer, celebrity or group of influencers and/or
celebrities could use the platform to push agendas, which are
deemed unacceptable by TikTok and which may not be picked up by
TikTok’s moderation system until it is too late and the
reputational and legal risk materialises.
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