Ahead of the US Election, TikTok Requires Accounts Owned by Governments, Politicians and Political Parties in the US to be Verified

JAKARTA - TikTok on Wednesday September 21 will begin requiring accounts belonging to US government departments, politicians, and political parties to be verified. The platform will also ban videos intended for campaign fundraising.

The move comes as TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, and other social media platforms are working to suppress political misinformation ahead of midterm elections in the US in November. This is also done, after years of criticism for allowing such content to thrive on their service.

"Political accounts can submit verification requests," TikTok said, quoted by Reuters. “Tiktok will also work to confirm the authenticity of profiles believed to belong to politicians or political parties.”

A verified account, marked with a blue tick on TikTok and other platforms like Twitter, means that the platform has confirmed ownership of the account.

TikTok has long faced scrutiny from US lawmakers, who have questioned the security of the Chinese-owned app against user data. The app is also trying to maintain its image as a venue for dance videos and comedy skits, and has banned political ads since 2019.

"To help enforce the ban, accounts belonging to politicians and parties will automatically be prevented from accessing advertising features," TikTok said in a blog post.

TikTok also said it would update its policy to ban campaign fundraising. Content that will be banned under the new policy includes videos of politicians soliciting donations or political parties directing users to make donations on their websites.

Accounts will also be barred from using money-making features available to influencers on the app, such as digital payments and gift giving.

For Indonesia, the regulation is not yet in effect. But it is not impossible that in the run up to the Pilers and Pilleg 2024 the same thing will be applied as in the US.