TikTok wants to ensure that you don’t get your likeness boosted for some slanderous AI-generated content.
Today, the company announced in a blog post that it is updating its community guidelines to address the growing concern about content created or modified by artificial intelligence (AI) technology on the social media platform. It also adds an additional group for protection under its hate speech policy and more information about its work to protect election integrity.
The key changes from the update are listed below:
- advancing our rules for how we treat synthetic media, which is content created or modified by AI technology;
- adding ‘tribe’ as a protected attribute in our hate speech and hateful behaviour policies;
- more detail about our work to protect civic and election integrity, including our approach to government, politician and political party accounts.
One of the big updates to its guidelines is how the company wants to protect users against AI-generated content. The updated guidelines prohibit the use of synthetic media that shows realistic scenes without prominently disclosing or labeling the use of AI, including videos that have been edited, spliced, or combined in a way that may mislead viewers about real-world events. TikTok has also banned the use of synthetic media that contains the likeness (visual or audio) of a real person when it is used for political or commercial endorsements.
However, there are some exceptions to the guidelines. Synthetic media showing a public figure in certain contexts, including artistic and educational content, such as a video showing a celebrity doing a popular TikTok dance, and a historical figure featured in a history lesson, are allowed. So, if you want to create a video of Pedro Pascal doing the chicken dance, that appears to be in the green.
The company says that its new community guidelines will go into effect on April 21. The announcement comes as TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew is set to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the United States on Thursday to prevent a potential ban of the app in the country. Chew released a video earlier today attempting to rally American users’ support for the company.
