TikTok Spreads False Information

TikTok spreads misinformation to users (photo courtesy AP News).

On Wednesday, researchers at NewsGuard produced and published a report about misinformation on TikTok. After searching for content on prominent news topics on the app, they found that nearly one in five of the automatically suggested videos by the platform contained misinformation. Some searches, like “mRNA vaccine,” yielded five videos out of the first ten that contained misinformation.

TikTok is currently the second most popular domain in the world, according to security company Cloudflare, following Google. Misinformation in the media has always been an issue. But, as the current political climate is as tense as ever, correct and factual information is more important than ever.