TikTok launched a dedicated Transparency Center on Monday to reinforce its commitment to accountability to its audiences. The updated Center will house the platform’s historical annual and quarterly transparency reports, in addition to upcoming interactive reports. The launch accompanies the latest H1 2021 Content Removal Requests Reports also announced on Monday.
The platform diligently releases transparency reports, in recognition of the importance of staying accountable for the actions taken to safeguard the platform and protect its integrity. To build trust through transparency, TikTok began releasing reports in 2019 and have continued to evolve the studies and findings with new, deeper, and industry-first data disclosures. Key highlights include the volume of suspected underage account removals made or the number of ads rejected for not meeting TikTok’s stringent standards.
To continue building on its transparency efforts, TikTok incorporated feedback from civil society organizations and experts to further develop refreshed report formats, now offering downloadable data in machine-readable formats. Additionally, reports aim to be visually appealing, with interactive charts and graphs to better illustrate data and actions taken. To best reach its global audience, the reports will be published in 26 languages, including Bengali, Urdu, English, French, German, Spanish, Traditional Chinese, Russian and Arabic, amongst others.
Through the Center, TikTok aims to make the transparency center a one-stop-shop to learn about how it moderates and recommends content, develops products and safeguards people’s information. The latest H1 2021 Content Removal Requests Reports updates are a continuation of that goal. The Center also comprises previous reports including: Community Guidelines Enforcement Report that offers quarterly insight into the actions taken to uphold Community Guidelines and Terms of Service; Information Requests Report that provides bi-annual data on the legal requests for user information received from government and law enforcement agencies and the nature of the platform’s response; Government Removal Requests Report that details the requests received bi-annually from government agencies to restrict content and any actions taken as a result; Intellectual Property Removal Requests Report that shows the volume of copyright and trademark content take-down notices and resulting response on a bi-annual basis, read a media release.
