• by Colin Kirkland , September 5, 2024

Building upon its original plan to help protect its user base against the spread of misinformation and harmful content surrounding the 2024 U.S. elections, TikTok is updating its U.S. Election Center, an in-app resource space showcasing various informational tools aimed at keeping users informed during this election year.

TikTok says it is working in partnership with nonprofit Democracy Works to provide its 170-plus million users in the US access to reliable information about the presidential election, including “detailed voting FAQs from authoritative sources that can help people better understand how elections work.”

TikTok initially launched its U.S. election center with Democracy Works back in January, which the company says has since been viewed over 7 million times.

In November, the company also plans on working with The Associated Press to make real-time election results available in TikTok, as its election center provides details about what is on the ballot, as well as links to “reliable third-party sources.”

In addition, TikTok says it is launching videos to raise awareness about TikTok’s safety tools and equip its users “with best practices on spotting potential misinformation.” The company has partnered with MediaWise – a media literacy organization – to develop a series of media literacy content, which TikTok says it will expand in the coming weeks by adding more videos in Spanish to its election center.

Despite facing a potential ban in the US, which could happen within a matter of months, TikTok says that it expects to invest over $2 billion in trust and safety this year, including continued investment in election integrity and its US operations. This now includes an internal US Elections Integrity Advisory Group devised in order to provide guidance on key election information features.

As generative-AI technology evolves, more false and misleading information is expected to proliferate across the web, especially on major social media platforms. TikTok, along with other companies like Meta and Google, are attempting to get ahead of any potential issues that could unfairly impact the upcoming election.