TikTok rolls out crowd-based 'Footnotes' fact checker in U.S.

30-07-2025

July 30 (UPI) -- TikTok on Wednesday announced a series of new safety, family and content features in addition to a community fact-checking tool similar to what's found on X and Facebook.
Company officials say its new add-ons will "help protect TikTok creators and empower them with tools to succeed so they can continue making content people love."
The updates will include creator care mode, a new mute feature, a creator's inbox and a "Creator Chat Room."
It also re-introduced its new "Footnotes" fact-checker feature that will roll out for U.S.-based users after the popular social media platform first revealed the plans in April.
The pilot program will allow a "contributor" to rate and write Footnotes on TikTok clips.
Footnotes will "draw on the collective knowledge of the TikTok community by allowing people to add relevant information to content on our platform," Adam Presser, TikTok's chief of operations, trust and safety said in a release.
All U.S. TikTokers will be permitted to view the notes rated as helpful and able to submit their own rating. It performs similar to the "Community Notes" section on the Elon Musk-owned X.
"It will add to our suite of measures that help people understand the reliability of content and access authoritative sources," Presser added, saying it included TikTok's content labels, search banners, fact-checking program and other components.
Presser said Footnotes will use a "bridge-based ranking system" designed to find agreement between people who typically differ in opinion. He said it was inspired by the open-sourced systems utilized by other social media platforms.
He said it works by allowing contributors with differing opinions to vote on the helpfulness of a footnote. But only footnotes meeting the "helpful" threshold will be visible to the greater TikTok community.
A recent study suggested the platform has created a political echo chamber with users tending to follow accounts that align with their own political beliefs.
"Whether the content discusses a complex STEM-related concept, shares statistics that could misrepresent a topic, or updates about an ongoing event, there may be additional context that could help others better understand it," Presser stated.
"That's why we're building Footnotes."
It followed Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, in January when the company said it would end third-party fact-checking and shift to a user-generated "Community Notes" format.

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A rival Tea app for men is leaking its users' personal data and driver's licenses

TechCrunch

28 minutes ago

TechCrunch

A rival Tea app for men is leaking its users' personal data and driver's licenses

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UPI

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Yahoo

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Yahoo

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