TikTok's Earth Day efforts will include the removal of climate change denial videos and new search features.
A photo taken on December 14, 2018 in Paris shows the logo of the application TikTok. - TikTok, is a Chinese short-form video-sharing app, which has proved wildly popular this year. (Photo by JOEL SAGET / AFP)
ByteDance said it will roll out these in-app changes ahead of Earth Day 2023, which will start on Apr. 22.
TikTok expects these efforts to empower accurate climate change discussions on the platform, as well as reduce harmful misinformation.
TikTok Earth Day 2023
Via its official Newsroom blog post, TikTok confirmed that it will start rolling out its new climate change misinformation policy on Apr. 21.
In this photo illustration taken on April 21, 2022, the icon of a video-sharing mobile phone application TikTok is pictured on a mobile phone used by an Afghan youth in Kabul. - The Taliban ordered a ban against video-sharing app TikTok and the survival shooter PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) game on April 21, insisting they were leading Afghanistan's youth astray.
Also Read: TikTok Ban Consequences: Banning the App Could Lead to Cybersecurity Issues-Here's Why
The social media giant said that this new policy aims to remove false climate change content that can affect well-established scientific consensus.
TikTok added that these videos include content denying the existence of climate change or factors that could contribute to this.
To make this effort more effective, TikTok announced that it would work with independent fact-checker partners.
TikTok will coordinate with them when applying its new climate change misinformation policy to videos. These fact-checkers are expected to help TikTok assess the accuracy of the content.
Other Efforts of TikTok
Aside from the new climate change misinformation policy and coordination with fact-checkers, TikTok will also roll out new search features.
These in-app enhancements will direct users (who are searching for climate-related videos) toward authoritative information.
These new search features will be rolled out in partnership with the United Nations (UN), as reported by Sky News.
This effort of TikTok is quite similar to YouTube; YT already promotes links to the official UN web pages on climate change when viewers try to search for relevant videos.
To make the Earth Day celebration more exciting, TikTok said that it would invite and encourage the TikTok community to take small actions that can help the environment.
If you want to participate, you can post videos of your activities using #EcoFriendly, #EarthDay, #ZeroWaste, and other similar hashtags.
"Join us as our global community continues to raise sustainability awareness with all the ways we can all help make this planet an even better place," said TikTok.
In other news, experts claimed that quitting TikTok and Twitter is not an easy thing to do despite their issues.
Recently, TikTok CEO Shou Chew said that they have solutions to data problems.
For more news updates about TikTok and other social media platforms, always keep your tabs open here at TechTimes.
Related Article: TikTok Revamps Community Policies Concerning AI-Generated Media, Climate Misinformation
