Integrity Institute Gives Feedback on TikTok’s Transparency Report
In March 2023, the Integrity Institute reviewed and gave comments on TikTok’s suite of transparency reports:
We were invited by TikTok to give feedback on these public reports and participate in a follow up roundtable as part of their process to enhance their transparency practice. TikTok integrated feedback from this session into their most recent transparency reports, including taking up our recommendation to change the downloadable dataset from an Excel file to an open, CSV filetype. Our feedback focused on the Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, as the key place where platforms can shed light on how harmful content spreads on their systems, and their efforts to do something about it.
It is positive that TikTok is releasing these reports and underlying datasets, and we felt the online transparency center that is interactive, usable and easy to understand is a good start. But, as with many other platforms, the current level of data released in these periodic transparency reports falls short of meaningful transparency that can really help people outside the company understand the scale, nature and cause of harmful content on their platform. The Integrity Institute’s feedback reflected our Transparency Best Practices, which outline the type and extent of data that platforms should release in order for external stakeholders to be able to assess whether the platform is responsibly designed and taking responsible steps to mitigate harms on the platform.
You can read the Integrity Institute’s detailed feedback to TikTok here.
Note: The Integrity Institute did not receive any compensation from TikTok for providing feedback, and this summary does not constitute endorsement for TikTok’s suite of transparency reports. For how the Institute engages with social platform companies and other stakeholders, please see here.