{"id":17582,"date":"2020-03-12T14:11:36","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T14:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rbsitsoftwaresolution.com\/blog\/tiktok-to-open-a-transparency-center-where-outside-experts-can-examine-its-moderation-practices.html"},"modified":"2020-03-12T14:11:36","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T14:11:36","slug":"tiktok-to-open-a-transparency-center-where-outside-experts-can-examine-its-moderation-practices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rbsitsoftwaresolution.in\/blog\/tiktok-to-open-a-transparency-center-where-outside-experts-can-examine-its-moderation-practices.html","title":{"rendered":"TikTok to open a \u2018Transparency Center\u2019 where outside experts can examine its moderation practices"},"content":{"rendered":"

TikTok, <\/a> the popular social media app owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, has been under a national security<\/a> investigation<\/a> by U.S. lawmakers who have raised concerns about the company\u2019s access to U.S. user data and whether it was censoring content at the behest of the Chinese government. Today, TikTok tries to combat these concerns with the opening of a \u201cTransparency Center\u201d that will allow outside experts to examine and verify TikTok\u2019s practices.<\/p>\n

The new facility in TikTok\u2019s LA office will allow outside experts to view how TikTok\u2019s teams operate day-to-day, the company explains<\/a>, as staff moderates content on the platform. This includes how moderators apply TikTok\u2019s content guidelines to review the content its technology automatically flagged for review, as well as other content the technology may have missed.<\/p>\n

In addition, the experts will be shown how users and creators are able to bring concerns to TikTok and how those concerns are handled. TikTok will also explain how the content on the platform aligns with its guidelines, the company says.<\/p>\n

This center mainly aims to address the censorship concerns the U.S. has with TikTok, which, as a Chinese-owned company may have to comply with \u201cstate intelligence work,<\/a>\u201d according to local laws, experts have said. TikTok has long denied that\u2019s the case, claiming that no governments \u2014 foreign or domestic \u2014 have directed its content moderation practices.<\/p>\n

That being said,\u00a0The Washington Post<\/a> reported last year that searches on TikTok revealed far fewer videos of the Hong Kong protests than expected, prompting suspicions that censorship was taking place. The Guardian,<\/a> meanwhile, came across a set of content guidelines for TikTok that appeared to advance Chinese foreign policy through the app. TikTok said these guidelines were older and no longer used.<\/p>\n

Today, TikTok\u2019s moderation practices are still being questioned, however. In November, it removed a video that criticized China\u2019s treatment of Muslims, for example. The video was restored after press coverage<\/a>, with TikTok citing a \u201chuman moderation error\u201d for the removal.<\/p>\n

While the larger concern to U.S. lawmakers is potential for China\u2019s influence through social media, TikTok at times makes other moderation choices that don\u2019t appear to be in line with U.S. values. For example, singer Lizzo recently shaded TikTok<\/a> for removing videos of her wearing a bathing suit, even as TikTok stars posted videos<\/a> of themselves dancing in their bathing suits. (The deleted video was later restored after press coverage.) The BBC also reported<\/a> that transgender users were having their posts or sounds removed by TikTok, and the company couldn\u2019t properly explain why. And The Guardian\u00a0reported<\/a> on bans of pro-LGBT content. Again, TikTok said the guidelines being referenced in the article were no longer in use.<\/p>\n

TikTok says the new transparency center will not only allow the experts to watch but also provide input about the company\u2019s moderation practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect the Transparency Center to operate as a forum where observers will be able to provide meaningful feedback on our practices. Our landscape and industry is rapidly evolving, and we are aware that our systems, policies and practices are not flawless, which is why we are committed to constant improvement,\u201d said TikTok U.S. General Manager Vanessa Pappas. \u201cWe look forward to hosting experts from around the world and continuing to find innovative ways to improve our content moderation and data security systems,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

The Center will open in early May, initially with a focus on moderation. Later, TikTok says it will open up for insight into its source code and efforts around data privacy and security. The second phase will be led by TikTok\u2019s newly appointed chief information security officer, Roland Cloutier<\/a>, who starts next month.<\/p>\n

The company notes it has taken many steps to ensure its business can continue to operate in the U.S. This includes the release of its new Community Guidelines<\/a> and the publishing of its first Transparency Report <\/a>a few months ago. TikTok has also hired a global General Counsel<\/a> and\u00a0expanded its Trust Safety hubs<\/a> in the U.S., Ireland and Singapore.<\/p>\n

Article source: http:\/\/feedproxy.google.com\/~r\/techcrunch\/social\/~3\/wLeeEslzo3Y\/<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TikTok, the popular social media app owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, has been under a national security investigation by U.S. lawmakers who have raised concerns about the company\u2019s access <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[10,7,14,15,6,12,11],"class_list":["post-17582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-update","tag-computer-news","tag-downloads","tag-microsoft-download-news","tag-networking-updates","tag-technology-update","tag-wordpress-plugin-download","tag-wordpress-theme-download"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t