Ahead of our national elections on 29 May, TikTok South Africa invited SA media to a Trust and Transparency Summit at its Singapore headquarters where the social media giant announced what it’s doing to maintain election integrity.
What TikTok Is Doing
TikTok South Africa announced partnerships with Code for Africa for fact-checking; Africa Check for a media literacy campaign for videos in official languages, including sign language; and has partnered with the Electoral Commission (IEC) to produce an in-app election guide.
The company says it will act against harmful misinformation to protect users and reduce the spread of untruths that could compromise the integrity of the electoral process.
It has partnered with government, law enforcement, the Human Rights Commission and the Film and Publication Board, securing their collaboration on the TikTok Safety Enforcement Tool, an escalation channel.
As you prepare to put your tick on the ballot sheet in a few days’ time, avoid any misinformation and access the IEC and TikTok’s official South African Election Guide 2024 on the app. It’d available in English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Xhosa, Setswana, and Sotho.
TikTok, along with Africa Check, shares these tips:
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Check the facts. If a video lacks verifiable information, ask yourself why. Truth is based on facts.
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Identify hidden intentions. Beware of the emotions a video arouses. Misinformation aims to provoke an emotional reaction.
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Analyse sources. Investigate the reliability and impartiality of sources.
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Compare stories. There may be different sides to a situation.
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Be on the lookout for Al-generated misinformation. You may notice sudden shifts in content quality or repetitive patterns in tone, inconsistent writing style, and unnatural language. Every detail counts in the search for true and ethical information.
What Google And Meta Are Doing
Google and Meta have also announced partnerships with Africa Check, and Media Monitoring Africa to deal with election misinformation on its platforms.
Google has pledged to ensure Search offers high-quality results with links to official sites from the IEC; remove content that violates its policies from YouTube using both AI and human reviewers; and make Ads more transparent by disclosing who paid for an ad.
The search giant says it’s training its Large Language Models (LLMs) to offer more adaptable enforcement systems that act quicker when new threats emerge.
Google’s Threat Analysis Group will help identify, monitor, and tackle emerging threats like coordinated influence operations and cyber-espionage campaigns against high-risk entities.
Meta says it will activate a South African-specific Elections Operations Centre focused on identifying potential threats in real time across its apps and technologies for Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.
It also has a partnership with Digify Africa to create digital literacy tools, like the Lesedi WhatsApp Chat Service.
Meta will also launch its Voter Information Unit and Election Day Reminder feature on both Facebook and Instagram with neutral reminders that direct users to the IEC site for authoritative information about how to vote on election day.
