The TikTok safety team is tasked with monitoring content on the platform that violates its policies. The company has now said that it will use automation technology to identify and remove videos that violate its policies.
The feature will make its way to subscribers in the U.S. and Canada over the next few weeks. TikTok has been reportedly testing this feature for a year now as its popularity continues to swell.
The automated algorithms will detect posts related to the safety of minors, violence, graphic content, nudity, sexual acts, illegal activity, and regulated goods. If and when the system detects a violation, the video will be removed automatically while the uploader can appeal the decision.
Users will still have the ability to flag videos and content for a manual review by the team. TikTok said that the automated review process will apply to “content categories where our technology has the highest degree of accuracy.”
TikTok will continue to have teams that manually review the videos
The company says that only one among 20 videos that were automatically removed was a false positive. This illustrates that the automated algorithm works with a high degree of accuracy. TikTok acknowledged that it hopes to improve the accuracy levels of its algorithms.
The automated screening of content will allow TikTok staff to focus on other content that may require a different approach. This includes monitoring videos that contain bullying, hate speech, harassment, and misinformation as per Axios.
This move will also offer respite to the TikTok safety team which has to go through distressing content including violence and exploitation. Facebook has faced significant flak for allegedly not doing enough to protect its content moderation teams. These teams go through harsh and disturbing content each day.
TikTok is also making some changes to the way violators are notified after breaking any of the rules.
The number of violations as well as their severity will be tracked by the platform. Individual users can see the details of their violations in the Account Updates section of the inbox. Users will also see the quantum of their suspension period and other information pertaining to the violation in this section.
The platform has managed to evolve since its arrival a few years ago. Earlier this month, developers of TikTok announced a new feature that would allow users to upload 3-minute videos along with the ability to edit videos directly on the platform.