TikTok prepares to combat misinfo, AI fakes and influence ops ahead of European Union election

LONDON (AP) — TikTok is taking measures to combat misinformation about the upcoming European Union elections, including setting up fact-checking hubs inside the app, the video-sharing platform said Wednesday in a blog post.

TikTok plans to launch local language in-app “election centers” next month for each of the 27 EU countries so that “people can easily separate fact from fiction."

Hundreds of millions of Europeans are scheduled to go to the polls in June to elect 720 lawmakers for the bloc's parliament in a vote that happens once every five years. With more than 50 countries due to hold national elections in 2024, tech companies are stepping up efforts to thwart attempts to disrupt the votes, including through the use of artificial intelligence to supercharge the spread of misleading content or create deepfake images and videos.

TikTok, which has 6,000 people working on moderating EU language content, signaled that it's bracing for an increase in misinformation, covert influence operations and misleading AI-generated material during the election period.