TikTok failed to detect disinformation on adverts to voting ahead of Irish general election

TikTok is accused of failing to identify disinformation relating to the Irish general election as voters head to the polls.

The social media platform failed to identify adverts containing disinformation and voter suppression messages according to an investigation by Global Witness.

The international NGO tested the moderation efforts of TikTok by submitting 28 adverts in English and Irish with obvious disinformation about how to vote in Ireland's general election being held on Friday, November 29.

Of the 28 adverts submitted with disinformation, 11 were approved by the social media giant, with three approved in English and eight in Irish.

Some of the false claims made in the adverts included the need to provide proof of two Covid-19 vaccinations to be able to vote, being allowed to post your vote after the polls closes and the ability to cast your vote on Facebook.

The videos had a plain coloured background with black text using "algospeak" such as adding special characters or substituting zeros and ones for "o"s and "i"s.

Global Witness says the ads were deleted before they were published to the platform and never went out.

However, they said this lapse exposes a "significant weakness" in moderation, particularly when noting that TikTok does not allow any form of political advertising on its platform.

In response to the investigation, a TikTok spokesperson told ITV News: "None of these misinformation ads ever appeared on TikTok and the majority were correctly rejected at the first stage of moderation.

"We will continue to enforce our longstanding position that we do not allow political advertising on TikTok and have launched a dedicated, in-app election centre to provide our users with authoritative information about the elections."

According to TikTok's latest transparency report on October 2024, declared under the Digital Services Act, showed that the platform had no Irish speaking moderators despite saying it monitors content across 27 EU member states.

"Social media platforms have a responsibility to keep elections safe," Ava Lee, Campaign Lead, Digital Threats at Global Witness, said.

"As more and more people get their news from their social media feeds, the least platforms should do is ensure that this content is free from the most obvious forms of disinformation."

While TikTok continues to ban political advertising, that has not stopped politicians across Europe, such as the recent Romanian presidential elections, from using the app to send political messages online, particularly targeting younger people.

There are fears that political content on platforms like TikTok could lead to the spread of disinformation as more anti-establishment groups attempt to leverage these algorithms, putting democratic elections and processes at risk.

Currently the video sharing app is under review by the EU under the Digital Services Act (DSA) over the protection of children using the platform.

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