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As the European Parliament elections approach, misinformation and fake news campaigns continue to rise. To combat this issue, social media platform TikTok has announced a new initiative aimed at curbing misinformation, according to Reuters.
The platform announced on Wednesday that it will release a local language app for all EU members, consisting of 27 countries. The initiative, dubbed “election centers,” is a sequel to the app’s 2021 approach to battle misinformation amid elections in Greece, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, and Spain.
“Next month, we will launch a local language Election Centre in-app for each of the 27 individual EU member states to ensure people can easily separate fact from fiction,” TikTok’s head of trust & safety EMEA Kevin Morgan said.
TikTok gears up to battle misinformation during the EU elections in June
TikTok’s local app aims to inform and educate EU voters about the electoral process. The ByteDance-owned platform has reportedly produced educational videos regarding voting. The content will be accessible via the election centers.
“Working with local electoral commissions and civil society organizations, these Election Centres will be a place where our community can find trusted and authoritative information,” Morgan said.
TikTok’s head of trust & safety also noted the app plans to expand its partnership with fact-checkers and launch nine additional media literacy campaigns this year to curb misinformation better. The platform now works with nine fact-checking organizations in Europe.
TikTok also plans to open a mission control space in its Dublin office. The division oversees the election-related content on the app from June 6 to June 9.
TikTok’s popularity is on the rise in every corner of the world. The app is now the fastest-growing social platform in the US. TikTok also currently hosts 134 million users from EU members monthly, and roughly 30% of European Parliament lawmakers use the app. The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) obligates every social platform with over 45 million monthly users to tackle misinformation, especially during elections.
Around 400 million EU voters should cast their ballots in June. Meanwhile, EU officials are deeply concerned about the impact of misinformation campaigns and election manipulation. EU Industry Commissioner Thierry Breton warned of “geopolitical instability” and “manipulation of citizens” amid the June elections in the bloc. He also warned about “foreign interference of all kinds,” that aims to target the elections.