TikTok Allowed Disinformation in Political Ads Despite Ban, According to Global Witness

SAN FRANCISCO -- Just weeks before the U.S. presidential election, TikTok approved advertisements containing election disinformation, despite having a ban on political ads, according to a report by Global Witness.

The nonprofit organization tested social media platforms' ability to detect election misinformation by submitting crafted ads. While they noted improvements in moderation systems at platforms like Facebook, TikTok was criticized for approving four of eight ads with false election claims.

The ads were never published on TikTok as Global Witness withdrew them before going live. TikTok spokesperson Ben Rathe stated, “Four ads were incorrectly approved during the first stage of moderation, but did not run on our platform,” emphasizing the platform's ongoing commitment to its political advertising ban established in 2019.

In contrast, Facebook, part of Meta Platforms Inc., had a better outcome—only approving one misleading ad out of eight submitted. Meta acknowledged the report as limited in scope and reiterated its commitment to improving ad enforcement.

Google's YouTube performed comparably, initially approving four ads but halting their publication pending additional identification from Global Witness testers. The report did not clarify if the ads would have been approved with the required verification.

Global Witness submitted ads that included outright false claims, such as the notion that Americans could vote online and misleading assertions to suppress voter turnout. The organization utilized “algospeak” to evade content moderation algorithms by replacing letters with symbols and numbers.