With the U.K. General Election date now official, TikTok has announced a new, dedicated in-app General Election centre, where it will provide reliable and authoritative information for users ahead of the poll.
As with other elections, TikTok is looking to dispel misinformation and manipulation efforts by providing official information via its dedicated in-app resource.
As explained by TikTok:
“We've partnered with Logically Facts, our fact-checking partner, to provide media literacy tips alongside key election and voting information from the Electoral Commission. When on TikTok, people will be directed to the General Election Centre through prompts and labels on relevant election content and when making election-related searches. We took a similar approach during the recent Local Elections in England and Wales, and we were pleased to connect hundreds of thousands of users to our Local Election Centre.”
TikTok says that most U.K. politicians have now joined the platform, with @uklabour, @ukconservatives and @libdems recently creating new accounts.
“Heading into this election, around a hundred Members of Parliament already had TikTok accounts, with Labour's Zarah Sultana and Conservative's Dr. Luke Evans amongst some of the most popular. U.K. news organisations are also reaching new audiences through our platform. The Daily Mail now has over 10 million followers across its TikTok channels, Sky News has 5.9 million, the BBC has 5.8 million across its news accounts, while ITV News has 3 million and The Sun, 2 million.”
It’s hard to say how influential TikTok might be as an election information source, especially given that the majority of U.K. TikTok users are aged between 15 and 24. U.K. citizens under 24 are statistically the least likely to vote, yet, at the same time, U.K. users do spend a lot of time in the app, and with many first-time voters among this cohort, it could well be a valuable platform for connecting on key issues ahead of the vote.
And clearly, the major political parties are taking the TikTok opportunity seriously, with some suggesting that this could be the first “TikTok election,” with trends originating from the app driving public sentiment.
As such, it’s important for TikTok to implement more measures to protect election integrity, and provide authoritative resources for those seeking more info.
TikTok will also be implementing additional moderation measures to detect AI manipulation, and other forms of influence operations, over the coming weeks.
