TikTok is rolling out a new feature under its State-Affiliated Media policy, and it will add labels to accounts owned by the government or are closely related to them. The new labels would appear in more than 40 countries in this upcoming update for the short-word social media platform.
This new update includes the United States, Canada, Europe, some countries in The Middle East, and China. It will provide certain labels for state-affiliated accounts and give people information that what they are viewing or following is under a certain country's government system.
TikTok State-Affiliated Labels Roll Out
The famous short-word social media company released a statement regarding its new labels on the platform, with TikTok employing its state-affiliated media policy online.
According to Justin Erlich, Global Head of Issue Policy & Partnerships, Trust & Safety, "Our goal in labelling state-affiliated media is to ensure people have accurate, transparent, and actionable context when they engage with content from media accounts that may present the viewpoint of a government."
The company first released these labels on its pilot program for Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine last year. It has now decided to add more countries receiving this feature to further identify the accounts people would engage with online.
According to CNET, TikTok said that accounts labeled as "state-affiliated" will have a chance to appeal their labels.
What are the Countries Receiving It?
According to TikTok, the following countries are now receiving the update on their new media policy:
Afghanistan, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mongolia, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, the Republic of Cyprus, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uzbekistan.
State-Affiliated Labels Online
While TikTok is mostly centering on its policy for state-affiliated media, there is a similar social media platform that also aims to enforce this for the public to see who they are interacting with. That platform is Twitter, and it is because of the chaotic Blue checkmark verification policy of the company, one where impersonators and fake accounts proliferated online.
This "Official" label for government officials and state-owned Twitter accounts would add another layer of verification online, giving people more information about their background and platform. It will center on the word "Official" under one's name with a verification check on their profile, specifying which country they serve, initially available for iOS.
While TikTok saw significant bans on government-owned smartphones and people not being able to access them on state-affiliated networks in the United States, the company wants to provide labels to correctly identify them online. Seeing this would provide people with an additional layer of information, especially for their interactions online.
