TikTok introduces safety features

KARACHI: TikTok, the world’s fastest growing social media app, has announced a new set of features for users in Pakistan along with an enhanced content classification system — an ‘additional layer’ of content moderation, protecting younger users from potentially unsettling or age-inappropriate content.

According to an announcement by TikTok Pakistan, the additions aim to “provide viewers with more ways to discover new content and tailor their viewing experience to their personal preferences”.

The announcement follows increasing efforts by TikTok to filter out content that violates its ‘Community Guidelines’, with the platform removing 12.5 million videos from Pakistan between January and March this year; only one country — the US — had more videos banned than Pakistan.

The improved content classification system, named ‘Content Levels’, will assign content that meets platform standards with a maturity score. The score serves as a means of highlighting content with “mature or complex themes that may be too frightening or intense for younger audiences” in order to “help prevent those under 18 from viewing it”.

In addition, the new features allow TikTok users to further personalise their viewing experience; users will now be able to screen out content with specified words or hashtags from their personal feeds and also reset their personal feeds through the ‘Keyword mute’ and ‘Reset’ features, respectively. The app will also introduce a non-personalised feed of popular content known as ‘Popular feed’ for users older than 13.

As part of the announcement, TikTok reaffirmed its commitment to the “overall well-being and safety” of its users, emphasizing that the new features were part of an effort “to foster a more welcoming online experience”. The announcement also highlighted measures that are already in place including “enhanced privacy settings, filters, in-app reporting, robust community guidelines and local language moderation which ensures the platform remains a safe space for its users”.

Launched worldwide in 2017, TikTok serves as the global arm of the Chinese video hosting service Douyin. Prioritising short-form video-based content ranging from 15 seconds to 10 minutes, the app enjoyed a rapid rise in popularity, surpassing 1.5 billion downloads worldwide by 2019. compiled by SensorTower based on App Store and Google Play downloads, TikTok was the third most downloaded app in Pakistan in 2021, reaching 26.5 million downloads. However, the surge in popularity has been pockmarked by controversies over the nature of its content, with the platform being banned by Pakistani authorities intermittently throughout 2021.

A common theme across the bans was the proliferation of allegedly ‘immoral or indecent’ content on TikTok. While TikTok community guidelines ban content that is deemed to be violent, sexually explicit and bullying or harassment, it found itself banned by the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority in July, 2021 due to the “continuous presence of inappropriate content on the platform and it’s failure to take such content down”. The PTA decided to lift the ban later in November after assurances from senior TikTok management that it remained committed to removing content that violated local laws and norms and blocking users who persistently uploaded such content.