TikTok protects top influencers from policy violations

TikTok gives preferential treatment to some influencers and celebrities. This emerges from internal company information that has now been leaked. Accordingly, TikTok has deployed a two-tier moderation system to protect users with over five million followers from policy violations.

TikTok has twisted its own policies and rules to protect celebrities and influencers from policy violations. This emerges from internal company records that the business magazine forbes present.

Accordingly, TikTok has developed a two-stage moderation system that specifically periodizes certain content and protects users with over five million followers from policy violations.

TikTok: Top influencers are allowed to disregard guidelines

Like all other social media, TikTok has certain community guidelines. These actually apply equally to all users in order to protect against certain content.

However, internal audio recordings from a company meeting in September 2022 show that the platform marked certain users as “creator labels” via its moderation system in order to favor them. These labels are in turn reserved for “special users”.

An employee also said in the leaked memo: “We don’t want to treat these users like any other accounts. We’re a bit more forgiving, I would say.” The Bytedance subsidiary moderated content from celebrities and influencers with over five million followers separately and with preference.

Two-tier moderation system?

When asked if TikTok uses a two-tier moderation system, company spokeswoman Jamie Favazza told Forbes, “TikTok is no more lenient about moderating accounts with more than 5 million followers.” based”.

However, in the memo, one respondent comments, “A celebrity could post content and I could post content, and if both were inappropriate, the celebrity would be able to stay on top.”

Evelyn Douek, a professor at Stanford Law School, admitted that it is understandable that the operators want to check high-level accounts. However, she warned that such a system could easily be abused.

This is especially true when it is operated by people who have a financial incentive to remove or maintain content: “A system designed to ensure that the rules are applied consistently is very different from a system designed to ensure that the rules are applied inconsistently when it comes to winning, for example.”

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