I want to thank me. Tik tok a palm sized portal to
slick quick homemade videos. That's Abby Richards, one
of the billion monthly users of the platform. I do feel
like I personally enjoy it a lot. I just need breaks
along with life hacks and magic tricks. The app was
also showing her videos with false information. Could
be health misinformation, It could be conspiracy
theories, it could be political misinformation,
michigan law enforcement on high alert misinformation
on Tiktok includes threats of school violence shared on
the site that thankfully turned out to be bogus. The
post on Tiktok was vague and anonymous. Tiktok has
pulled down videos and banned hashtags referencing
debunked claims about the 2020 election in COVID-19
playing whack a mole against dangerous deception. On
something is created, it can be flagged and taken down
and within that instance, something new will be posted.
Professor Corey bash says, misinformation spreads
easily on Tiktok a site growing so fast, especiall
among young people there. So immersed in it. Still
learning how to tell fact from fiction and that's
what's concerning. They're accessing things that it
might be difficult to discern whether it's true. It's
reality. She points to this video with a baseless
message. This is real. It begins showing a model
struggling to walk captioned, get vaccinated, they said,
the woman eventually collapses. Tiktok allowed the
video to stay but added a banner linking to vetted
COVID information bash says tha may not be enough. You
can assume that there is some subset of the population
that doesn't realize it's a joke. Unlike facebook and
instagram offering videos from what your friends share.
Tiktok's for you function focus
based on what you've previously watched. That's how
people sort of end up going down the rabbit hole, so to
speak. A Tiktok spokesperson tells us we strive to
promote an authentic Tiktok experience by limiting the
spread of misleading content. Working with fact
checkers and providing access to authoritative
information. There are ways of getting around the
sensors by using code words or emojis or the audio from
a band video. Here's an example, thousands of videos
viewed again and again feature the same audio from a
removed posts about Covid 19 vaccines while showing
something totally unrelated lik a cute dog. We've
developed a vaccine for Covid 19 and you want me to
take that. Thanks. But no thanks. Tiktok creators do
know and have shown signs that they are adept in
circumnavigating and getting around Tiktok's efforts.
We found many of those posts with audio from the band
anti vaccine video like this one don't have Tiktok's
banner linking to well sourced information. The compan
is trying to educate its fans. So what is media
literacy Tiktok tips Teach how to avoid falling for an
accurate material. Being media literate is a key part
of having a great Tiktok experience rather than s
something with unfounded claims You can report it flag
posts and become part of the solution. Abby Richards
now devote some of her own tick talks to fighting
misinformation. My videos take a lot of research while
pushing the site to weed out more of the bad stuff.
It's just a very difficult task. But they should be
doing it. I don't care. A big challenge for a big
platform and its billion users. Patrick is with us
tonight. Patrick. Okay. A few things here blatantly
false or misleading information or videos on Tiktok.
That's one thing. But there's this whole gray area.
Somebody giving their opinion might be unpopular or
it's snark. It's a joke. You know, social media
companies don't look like they're infringing on free
speech. How do they walk that line at Tiktok It's
really tough for Tiktok. So look back at that video. We
just showed you of the model trying to walk down the
runway where it said vaccines. This is why this
happened to me. That is a really tough one for them
because it's clearly a joke. But it's a misleading
video. So Tiktok solves that by putting one of those
disclaimers that we've all seen at the top of the video
that takes you to reliable vetted information. Th
seems to be their answer. So it gets to stay on Tiktok.
But there is a big asterisk on there that they hop
people click on. Gotcha. Okay. I've never seen it
myself because honestly, I do not use Tiktok, but it, I
found out in your package are people clicking on that
link Tiktok won't tell us. We asked. Okay, so how many
times that you put these banners on Do people actually
engage with it They won't say we do have a reason to
believe that all of their efforts that they do put out
there, whether they're PS assess whether those links
may not be as engaging to say those troublesome videos
themselves. We look at how many people have actually
watched those PS A.S, for example, the numbers are very,
very low versus some of the misinformation, misleadi
videos. Those have huge engagement because people are
seeing things they've never seen before and they're
provocative and you see a funny video that might be
misleading. I think most people are savvy enough to
know, but maybe kids aren't. Yeah. You know, I haven't
stayed on it. I haven't gotten on it because I'm
worried about data and I don't know who has access to
about parents or maybe worried about information for
their kids. Your parents let their kids on Tiktok. So
they really have to decide for themselves of course
But the people that we talked to in our piece, they say
the key thing is to really educate your kids about
Tiktok because it is fun. It does inspire creativity in
doing the reporting for this. I went down my own rabbit
holes with these videos. It's it's very engrossing. But
at the same time you are getting information. So the
experts will say to parents, wh you need to do is sit
down with your kid and say this is how you know what is
true, this is how you know what's not true and this is
how you deal with sort of the gray area. And to start
those conversations early, people always say they're
weird rabbit holes. What did it take you down Oh gosh,
I mean everything. But for me it's mostly the musical
stuff. You know, you start to see just the immense
talent that's out there. If people have any talent we
showed in the peace and the dextrous art, it's on
Tiktok and once you start watching that stuff, it takes
you to the next thing. But that is also the way those
misinformation rabbit holes can start. You see one
thing that maybe is something weird about vaccines
before you know it you've I've seen all sorts of things
that are questionable. You're in another chamber, Newsy
investigative correspondent Pat Terpstra. Thank you.