Bangkok, Thailand – Short-form video platform TikTok said it will bar election candidates from monetising their content during the campaign period ahead of Thailand’s 8 February general election.
The platform, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, said political content would be ineligible for paid promotion, including posts from political parties and election candidates. “Any political content, whether from political parties or content creators including media, cannot be promoted by paid advertising at all,” said Siriprapa Weerachaising, manager for outreach and partnerships at TikTok.
TikTok said it has strengthened safeguards to curb misinformation during the election period, including working with fact-checking organisations to verify the accuracy of content posted on the app. It has also deployed an in-house monitoring team in anticipation of an increase in misleading information, hate speech and political conflict.
The company added that it will launch an election centre a month before the campaign period begins to help users access verified information about candidates, the voting process and the election.
TikTok said measures such as content moderation are already in place, with users able to flag harmful posts through the platform’s reporting tools.
“After the elections in Malaysia and the Philippines, we learned that many users were not aware of these tools and measures,” said Chanida Klyphun, director of public policy at ByteDance Southeast Asia. “We hope to raise more public awareness ahead of the Thai elections.”
