• by Colin Kirkland , May 10, 2024

Like many other major social networks, TikTok is beginning to automatically label AI-generated content that is reposted from different platforms.

To do so, the company is partnering with the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), while also releasing new media literacy resources.

TikTok says it will be the first video-sharing platform to implement C2PA’s “Content Credentials” technology, which attaches metadata to content that TikTok can use to instantly recognize and label AI-generated media. The tech is currently being applied to photos and videos, with audio-only content coming soon.

Content Credentials will remain on content even after it is downloaded, the company adds, meaning that anyone will be able to use C2PA's “Verify” tool to help identify AI-generated content that was made on TikTok “and even learn when, where and how the content was made or edited.”

For over a year now, TikTok has been labeling AI-generated content using its own in-stream tools. It also requires creators to label any realistic AI-generated content they upload onto the platform. Integrating C2PA’s labeling technology will likely help cover more AI-generated media on the platform, but it represents a single step in developing a more unified solution.

While tech giants including Google, OpenAI, Microsoft and Adobe are all participating in the C2PA project, there is still a labeling blind spot left from generative-AI projects not yet signed up. To help drive the adoption of Content Credentials, TikTok is joining the Adobe-led Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI).

TikTok says auto-labeling may take time to make a widespread impact, because the platform is the first to apply Content Credentials to video-sharing.

The AI-generated content “needs to have the Content Credentials metadata for us to identify and label it,” the company explains. “However, as other platforms also implement it, we'll be able to label more content.”

Working alongside MediaWise, a program of the Poynter Institute, TikTok plans to release 12 videos throughout the year highlighting universal media literacy skills while also explaining how its tools can “further contextualize content.”

The platform will also be launching a video-series campaign to raise awareness around AI labeling with video-literacy group WITNESS.