TikTok has announced “Footnotes,” its own version of the community note feature that appeared on Twitter and has spread to other social networks. As in other cases, this is a crowdsourced approach to moderation – TikTok says that contributors will be able to “add relevant information to the content on our platform.”
U.S. users can apply to be a footnote contributor today if they meet TikTok’s requirements, including that they must have been on TikTok for more than six months, be over 18 years old, and not have violated any community rules within the previous six months. The company says it will also notify US users who already meet its requirements.
TikTok says that the feature will be “tested in the US for short videos” and that it will open up access to contributors “in the coming months.”
After debuting on Twitter in 2021 as Birdwatch, a fact-checking program that responds to online disinformation, crowdsourcing context has become a popular alternative to moderation on the platform, spreading in recent months to YouTube and Facebook, Instagram, and Meta’s Threads. In February, TikTok reportedly laid off an undisclosed number of its trust and security staff, but today says the feature “complements our existing set of measures and features to ensure the integrity of the platform.”
