TikTok has updated its content rules and will ban users who break guidelines it says. TikTok announced an updated system for account enforcement in a blog post as it aims to provide a better user experience for users. TikTok’s community guidelines explain the behaviours and content that are not allowed on the platform, and when people violate the policies, TikTok takes action on their content to keep the platform safe.
TikTok rule change
A statement from the social media platform said: “Most of the community members aim to follow the policies, but there is a small minority of people who repeatedly violate the policies and don’t change their behaviour.
“To allow for a better user experience, TikTok updated the account enforcement system to better act against repeat offenders with the goal of helping TikTok more efficiently and quickly remove harmful accounts, while promoting a clearer and more consistent experience for the vast majority of creators who want to follow policies.”
TikTok says existing punishments for rulebreakers on the platform include temporary commenting bans. While this approach has been effective in reducing harmful content overall, TikTok says, content creators on the platform have found it confusing to navigate. It can disproportionately impact creators who rarely and unknowingly violate a policy, while potentially being less efficient at deterring those who repeatedly violate them.
Repeat violators tend to follow a pattern – analysis has found that almost 90% violate using the same feature consistently, and over 75% violate the same policy category repeatedly. To better address this, TikTok is updating the account enforcement system to support the creator community and remove repeat offenders from the platform.
Under the new system, if someone posts content that violates one of TikTok’s Community Guidelines, the account will accrue a strike as the content is removed. If an account meets the threshold of strikes within either a product feature (i.e. Comments, LIVE) or policy (i.e. Bullying and Harassment), it will be permanently banned.
Those policy thresholds can vary depending on a violation’s potential to cause harm to community members for example, there may be a stricter threshold for violating TikTok policy against promoting hateful ideologies, than for sharing low-harm spam. TikTok will continue to issue permanent bans on the first strike for severe violations, including promoting or threatening violence, showing or facilitating child sexual abuse material (CSAM), or showing real-world violence or torture.
As an additional safeguard, accounts that accrue a high number of cumulative strikes across policies and features will also be permanently banned. Strikes will expire from an account’s record after 90 days. These changes are intended to drive more transparency around enforcement decisions and help the community better understand how to follow the Community Guidelines.
To further support creators, the platform will roll out new features in the Safety Centre provided to creators in-app in the coming weeks.
