TIKTOK’S new safety rules appear to be suffering from teething troubles.
The new guidelines are designed to block dangerous content but according to fan complaints are leading to unwarranted user bans.
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The popular video-sharing platform is cracking down on a wider range of behaviours under new safety guidelines that come into effect today.
Among other misdeeds, the rules are aimed at reducing the prevalence of sexual content, hate speech and dangerous challenges on the platform.
However, users say that the video-sharing platform’s moderating algorithms have become a little trigger happy.
On social media, they’re sharing images of seemingly innocuous posts that have been taken down by TikTok since the rule change.
One Twitter user wrote: “Wow I will never stop complaining about
TikTok’s s***ty community guidelines. How does the hashtag #covidisnotover violate the community guidelines??”
A popular comic on the platform shared an image of her feed – apparently with a video or two missing – and wrote: “I guess my impressions of the grinch is a community guidelines violation on TikTok”.
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And, sharing a clip of a woman dancing in a bikini, a third wrote: “This got taken down from TikTok. Thank heavens we have community guidelines that miss the mark all the time”.
It’s not clear whether TikTok plans to soften the way that it enforces the new policy, which are ultimately designed to make the platform safer.
TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
TikTok announced the controversial changes to its community guidelines last month.
The move sees the platform strengthen its rules around online challenges, promoting eating disorders and hateful ideologies.
As part of the update, TikTok said its rules will now more clearly note the risk of dangerous acts and challenges, such as suicide hoax content.
New videos from notable creators on the platform will urge others to “stop, think, decide and act” when assessing videos they see.
The firm said its rules around eating disorder content have also been strengthened and will now prohibit the promotion of disordered eating.
A further change will see the site be more explicit on the hateful ideologies banned from the platform, including misgendering or misogyny.
“We’ve made significant strides to improve our policies and enforcement … though we recognise there’s no finish line when it comes to keeping people safe,” TikTok’s Head of Trust and Safety, Cormac Keenan, said.
“We’re driven by our passion to help everyone have a good and enriching experience on TikTok.”
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In other news, the mystery surrounding why prehistoric Brits built Stonehenge has finally been solved after research confirmed that the monument served as an ancient solar calendar.
In other news, the iPhone’s virtual assistant, Siri, is getting a new, “gender-neutral” voice.
A British woman has told of her horror after scammers used photos of a “silver fox” politician to trick her out of £80,000.
And, Norfolk County Council is suing Apple over what it says was misleading information about iPhone sales.
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