It was discovered that TikTok was distributing hoaxes and old Japanese tsunami information as breaking news
It has been discovered that news alerts distributed by TikTok included information about earthquakes that occurred several weeks prior, as well as hoaxes and misinformation. The alerts sometimes included summaries of posts made by users, raising the risk of users spreading malicious content widely.
TikTok push alerts include fake news and weeks-old tsunami warning
TikTok Is Pushing Old and False News as “Breaking” Alerts
According to the financial newspaper Financial Times, TikTok has also posted tsunami information under the title 'BREAKING' three weeks after the Noto Peninsula earthquake in January 2024, spread false rumors that singer Taylor Swift had canceled her entire tour, saying 'Florida is racist,' and posted an April Fool's Day news article about MLB player Shohei Ohtani being suspended for five years for gambling.
These notifications are displayed as 'news alerts,' and users can tap the notification to see the original post. Users may be able to determine whether a post is a lie or the truth by looking at the original post, but those who only see the notification may believe it to be true, so TikTok has been criticized for distributing inaccurate information as 'news.'
Experts say the notifications could be delivered algorithmically to users' preferences, but TikTok declined to answer questions about how that would actually work.
Social media platforms like TikTok, X, and Meta are facing increased scrutiny to police content on their platforms, especially in the run-up to the November 2024 presidential election. These days, AI-generated deepfakes can spread sophisticated false information that can be mistaken for reality, so social media platforms must also be vigilant about posts made by AI.
TikTok has pledged to become 'the first major social media platform to automatically label pieces of AI-generated content' in May 2024, and is working to eliminate misinformation.
The notification sent this time has now been deleted by TikTok.
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