TikTok’s Moderation System Accused Of Giving Preferential Treatment To Its Most Popular Users

Forbes has come out with a new report that’s shedding light on TikTok’s moderation system.

The media outlet went into detail recently about how the company has been making use of the system that’s designed keeping the two-tier theme in mind. And that’s when it outlined how this allows for preferential treatment of some of its most sought-after users.

A recent audio recording from one of TikTok’s exclusive meetings was put on display and it dates back to exactly one year ago. The firm can be seen outlining one internal feature that’s called creator labels. It’s reserved for those having a massive fan following of users, exceeding the 5 million figure.

In terms of exercising moderation on such users, out of which the majority were celebs or top content creators, the company opted to use a separate queue for moderation. And that is what made experts believe that the company is dealing with such accounts separately.

Forbes says TikTok acknowledges some shocking findings in the meeting. This includes claims that they don’t wish to treat such accounts like all others. That’s incredibly shocking because it means they’re not sticking to their own Community Guidelines which adds how it all applies to each person on the app.

The firm is yet to comment on the news for comment but one spokesperson has made it clear that it does treat all users equally. They are not providing any extra benefits or leniency for those having giant user bases. It also confirmed that no such moderation queues are existent that is formed on the basis of follower figures.

But if this shocking report from Forbes is indeed true, it’s definitely not the first company of its kind to give extra privileges to those with bigger accounts.

Last year, the WSJ highlighted how the XCheck system seen on Meta enabled millions of users with influential profiles on its apps to slip by so many of its rules. There was even one scene that highlighted how moderators were blocked from using their powers to censor nude images put up by a leading soccer player from Brazil’s national team, Neymar.

The celeb was provoked to do the action after the female accused him of carrying out assault and as a form of retaliation, he chose to behave in this manner. And this particular post got over 60 million views, right before Meta stepped in to intervene.

More shocking is how the firm refused to ban the soccer player’s account after all this, despite the fact that it was not shared through consensual means.


Read next: TikTok’s Popularity And Growth Among Social Media Platforms May Finally Be Declining, Proves New Study
Previous Post Next Post