TikTok is announcing new educational tools designed to offer credible and legitimate information to users about the Holocaust. This move comes on Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27), the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945.
The platform said it would offer reading material with a banner whenever users search for terms like ‘Holocaust survivor’. The banner contains a link to aboutholocaust.org. This is a resource by UNESCO and the World Jewish Congress to educate people about the Holocaust.
“Remember to consult trusted sources to prevent the spread of hate and misinformation,” the banner says. The banner will also appear when users conduct searches that are in violation of TikTok’s rules.
“Starting today, if people search for a term related to the Holocaust – such as ‘Holocaust victims’ or ‘Holocaust survivor’ – they will see a banner at the top of the search results page that prompts them to visit aboutholocaust.org to learn more,” TikTok said in a blog post (via CNET).
TikTok and a few other social media platforms have a poor track record of dealing with misinformation
The platform has previously come under fire from advocacy groups for failing to curb the spread of antisemitism. There have also been instances of TikTok users engaging in hateful rhetoric targeting a specific community. Misinformation is also quite rampant, though this problem persists across all major platforms in some form.
TikTok has previously said it stands against antisemitism. The platform uses a combination of human moderators and technology to remove antisemitic content or accounts. Apart from the new reading material from aboutholocaust.org, TikTok said it would highlight educational content on the Discover page.
“The World Jewish Congress is proud to partner with UNESCO and TikTok in making factual and reliable information about the Holocaust available to the TikTok community,” President at the World Jewish Congress, Ronald S Lauder, said.
“TikTok allows us to reach a new audience, some of whom may be uninformed about the horrors of the Holocaust and therefore be potentially susceptible to misinformation. We welcome the platform taking responsibility and leveraging its reach to stop the spread of antisemitism and Holocaust denial.”
2022-01-28 15:05:24