Chinese language video app TikTok, owned by Chinese language firm ByteDance, will likely be becoming a member of the European Union’s voluntary code of conduct to fight unlawful hate speech on-line, the European Fee mentioned on Tuesday.
Social media platforms have come below growing strain from politicians and governments to do extra to deal with on-line hate speech and disinformation, which have been blamed for serving to to gas a wave of racist assaults in some international locations.
The Fee arrange the code of conduct in Could 2016 the place tech firms work with civil society organisations and public authorities to take away on-line hate speech.
Fee Vice President for values and transparency Vera Jourova mentioned the brand new addition to a bunch, whose members embrace Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, Google’s YouTube and Snapchat, was a optimistic step.
“It is good that TikTok joined the code, an organization favoured by younger customers who’re notably weak to on-line abuse and unlawful hate speech,” she mentioned in an announcement.
“After all, I anticipate TikTok to stick not solely to the Code’s rules, but additionally absolutely respect European legislation when working on European soil,” Jourova mentioned.
“Our final objective is to remove hate on TikTok. We recognise that this may occasionally appear an insurmountable problem because the world is more and more polarised, however we consider that this should not cease us from attempting,” TikTok’s head of belief and security for EMEA Cormac Keenan mentioned in an announcement.
© Thomson Reuters 2020
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