TikTok to Crack Down on Influencers Who Violate Ban on Paid Political Ads

pcmag.com:

Ahead of the 2022 US midterms, TikTok is pleding to crack down on election misinformation, as well as influencers who run afoul of the social network's ban on paid political ads.

"TikTok does not allow(Opens in a new window) paid political ads, and that includes content influencers are paid to create," Eric Han, Head of US Safety, wrote in a blog post(Opens in a new window). "We work to educate creators about the responsibilities they have to abide by our Community Guidelines and Advertising policies as well as FTC guidelines."

Those FTC guidelines(Opens in a new window) require influencers to tell followers when they're being paid to promote something, usually with a hashtag like #ad. TikTok has a "branded content toggle(Opens in a new window)" that creators can tap to easily mark posts as sponsored.

For those TikTokers who are not well-versed in Federal Trade Commission rules, however, TikTok will soon "publish a series of educational content on our Creator Portal and TikTok, and host briefings with creators and agencies so the rules of the road are abundantly clear when it comes to paid content around elections."

Han added: "If we discover political content was paid for and not properly disclosed, it is promptly removed from the platform."

For non-influencers, TikTok is rolling out an updated version of its 2020 election guide, and it will label content identified as "being related to the 2022 midterm elections," as well as from US government, politician, and party accounts, and popular hashtags like #Elections2022 and #MidtermElections.

"Out of an abundance of caution, while content is being fact checked or when content can't be substantiated through fact-checking, it becomes ineligible for recommendation into For