Community Guidelines

TikTok Community Guidelines Discussion Pt. 2

• Mission and Vision: TikTok aims to inspire creativity and bring joy by unlocking human imagination through creative expression and entertainment.

• Community Guidelines: The guidelines are designed to ensure a safe, trustworthy, and vibrant experience, informed by legal frameworks, best practices, and community input.

• Content Moderation: TikTok’s content moderation is based on four pillars to balance expression and prevent harm, enforced through rules and platform resources.

• Core Value: Users are encouraged to be kind and treat others as they would like to be treated, supporting TikTok’s goal of maintaining a welcoming space.

Community Principles

• Expression vs. Harm Prevention: TikTok strives to balance freedom of expression with the prevention of harm to its community.
• Human Dignity: The platform is committed to upholding human dignity in all its actions and content moderation.
• Fairness: Ensuring fairness in enforcement decisions is a guiding principle for TikTok.
• Alignment with International Standards: TikTok’s practices are informed by international frameworks like the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the International Bill of Human Rights.

Safety and Civility

• Civility and Safety: The page emphasizes the importance of civility and physical and psychological safety for individual well-being and community thriving. It advocates for respectful engagement and recognizes everyone’s inherent dignity.

• Violence and Threats: It outlines a strict policy against violent threats, incitement to violence, and promotion of criminal activities that may harm people, animals, or property. Credible threats are reported to law enforcement.

• Hateful Behavior: The platform does not tolerate any hateful behavior, hate speech, or promotion of hateful ideologies, especially those targeting individuals or groups based on protected attributes.

• Youth Protection: There’s a strong stance against youth exploitation and abuse, with measures in place to report incidents and provide support to victims. The platform also respects gender equity and intimate privacy, prohibiting sexual exploitation or gender-based violence.

  Mental and Behavioral Health

• Community Well-being: TikTok prioritizes the well-being of its community, fostering happiness, enrichment, and a sense of belonging.
• Suicide & Self-Harm: The platform prohibits content that shows or promotes suicide or self-harm, and provides support resources for those in need.
• Body Image & Eating Disorders: TikTok discourages content that promotes negative body image or disordered eating, and restricts content related to cosmetic surgery without risk warnings.
• Dangerous Challenges: The app does not allow content that shows or promotes dangerous activities and challenges that could lead to significant physical harm.

  Sensitive and Mature Themes

• Content Diversity: TikTok hosts a range of content from family-friendly to mature, adapting to cultural and developmental contexts globally.
• Sexual Content: Prohibits sexual activity or services but allows reproductive health and sex education content.
• Nudity Restrictions: No nudity is allowed, with specific definitions for intimate body parts and semi-nudity, reflecting cultural practices.
• Creative Expression: Supports creative expression while restricting sexually suggestive content by young people and explicit language

  Integrity and Authenticity

• Community Trust: The platform aims to foster a community of trust and accountability, allowing for diverse opinions but operating on a shared set of facts and reality.
• Misinformation Policy: Content with misinformation causing significant harm is not allowed. Fact-checkers and public health authorities help assess accuracy.
• Election Integrity: Misinformation affecting civic and electoral processes is prohibited to prevent voter interference and ensure peaceful power transfer.
• AI Content Regulation: AI-generated content must be labeled to distinguish fact from fiction, with restrictions on harmful or misleading AI-generated media.

  Regulated Goods and Commercial Activities

• Content Moderation: TikTok moderates content related to health and finances to prevent harm and misinformation.
• Gambling Policy: Promotion of gambling services is prohibited to protect users from potential addiction and financial loss.
• Substance Regulations: There’s a strict policy against promoting recreational drug use, alcohol, tobacco products, and regulated substances.
• Weapon Safety: TikTok educates on responsible weapon use and prohibits trade content that could lead to severe injury or death.
• Trade Facilitation: The platform disallows facilitating trade of regulated, prohibited, or high-risk goods and services.
• Disclosure Requirements: Creators must disclose any material relationship when promoting goods or services to maintain transparency.
• Fraud Prevention: TikTok is committed to protecting its community from scams and financial exploitation by prohibiting fraudulent activities

  Privacy and Security

• Privacy Protection: TikTok is committed to protecting users’ privacy and personal information, ensuring the platform remains secure and trustworthy.
• Content Sharing: Users are advised to be cautious about sharing personal information that could lead to stalking, violence, phishing, fraud, identity theft, or financial exploitation.
• Platform Integrity: Unauthorized access, attempts to obtain sensitive information, and abuse of TikTok’s security features are prohibited.
• Safety Measures: Users should avoid suspicious links and requests for personal details, and can learn more about TikTok’s privacy and security approach on the platform.

  For You Feed Eligibility Standards

• Personalized Recommendations: The For You feed (FYF) on TikTok uses a personalized system to recommend content, considering factors like likes, shares, and comments.
• Content Patterns: To protect users, TikTok interrupts repetitive patterns of potentially problematic content, such as extreme fitness or sadness.
• Eligibility Standards: TikTok maintains standards for FYF content, prioritizing safety and cultural norms, and excludes certain themes for a broad audience.
• Youth Content: Content from creators under 16 is not eligible for FYF to provide a safe exploration space for young users.

  Accounts and Features

• Age Requirements: Users must be 13 years and older to have an account, with additional age limitations in some regions. The U.S. has a separate under-13 experience with extra safety protections.

• Account Bans: Accounts can be banned for severe violations, repeated violations, circumvention, or operation of accounts dedicated to prohibited activities.

• Off-Platform Activity: Account bans may also consider off-platform activity related to violence, hate, and child exploitation, with reports to law enforcement if necessary.

• Content Visibility: Repeated posting of content that is allowed but not eligible for the For You Feed (FYF) may make the account and its content less discoverable.

• Monetization and Commercial Content: Users must be 18+ to use monetization features, and all commercial content must comply with TikTok’s policies. Violations can lead to restrictions or bans.

  Enforcement

• Public Interest Content: Content that informs, inspires, or educates the community on significant matters may be exempt from standard rules.
• Context Consideration: Contextual elements like captions and voiceovers are crucial in evaluating content for public interest exceptions.
• Safety Measures: Certain content may feature additional safeguards, such as opt-in screens, but extreme harm content is not exempt.
• Enforcement and Appeals: Content is reviewed against guidelines using technology and human oversight, with options for notification and appeal for content violations.