TikTok has suddenly become one of the most popular apps around the world out of nowhere! The company had decided to limit its content, but the big question is, who is behind all the decision-making and what types of restrictions can be expected?
The popularity of TikTok came out of nowhere
One day, celebrities started using TikTok to promote themselves and increase their fan base as this video hosting site allows users to do covers of popular songs, speeches, or other silly clips! The growing popularity has made it all the way to the celebrities themselves, as even Justin Bieber has been seen using TikTok and making videos of his own songs through his platform.
TikTok has decided to unveil a group consisting of outside advisers with much expertise when it comes to hate speech, child safety, misinformation, and also other gray areas where judgment is hard to draw.
What is the rationale behind this decision?
By looking at the bigger picture, online platforms are definitely facing intense scrutiny from the lawmakers and even the whole Justice Department over how they make their decisions on what users can and cannot do as well as what they can say and cannot say.
The Content Advisory Council will be discussing existing and possible future policies
The TikTok US general manager by the name of Vanessa Pappas wrote in a post that the fight against misinformation continues as the Content Advisory Council talks about certain existing problems as well as potential future problems they have with their policies.
The people of interest
The very first person of interest is Dawn Nunziato, who is a George Washington University Law School professor as well as the co-director of the Global Internet Freedom Project, who specializes on but not limited to the online free speech issue. Mr. Dawn Nunziato will chair the council.
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Another key member of the council is Mary Anne Franks. She is a University of Miami Law School professor and a critic of Section 230 of the known Communications Decency Act--known for giving online companies broad licenses allowing them to moderate their very own platform; however they seem fit.
The president of the tech policy thinks tank Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, who goes by the name of Rob Atkinson, is also involved as well as Hany Farid who is a UC Berkley professor who gives much of his focus towards digital image analysis.
TikTok had already planned out an external advisory group
Back in October 2019, TikTok had already made plans for an external advisory group as they were working with the lawyers from the known firm K&L Gates which include the former Congressman Bart Gordon as well as Jeff Denham.
The last policy update TikTok had was way back January
Back in January, TikTok decided to update its community standards with a more detailed description of which content is acceptable and which content is not.
