Information Literacy

TikTok fails to detect election disinformation in the US

As the United States heads towards election day, political ads are popping up everywhere, including social media. And according to a new study, false information is spreading just as fast. An experiment conducted by the watchdog group Global Witness and the Cybersecurity for Democracy team at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering found that 90% of election disinformation ads tested were approved by TikTok, even though the service does not allow political ads. The group sent content with false information to TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube; only YouTube succeeded both in detecting the ads and suspending the channel carrying them.