TikTok New Community Guidelines With Same Old Problems

TikTok just updated their Community Guidelines. They are awesome, really well written and I am sure the public policy team and the lawyers working on this received a round of applause on this brilliant work. But that's where the good news stops.


The hard part is informing users about the community guidelines and implementing them. This is where platforms begin passing the buck. The usual answer I am bored of hearing, O well we only implement the guidelines when someone reports there is abusive content. Sorry not good enough.

As Tim Cook rightly said "We need to be responsible for the chaos we create". In 2020 all social media platforms need to be proactive in implementing their community guidelines. In fact countries like Germany and New Zealand are ensuring platforms do that.

In India we are still awaiting the our updated laws that have been in discussion for a while. I would request TikTok and other social media platforms to be more proactive. Some ideas which could be thought about.
  1. Training manuals for teachers. Yup this old school methodology is super effective in India.
  2. Awareness generation campaigns using TikTok influencers, get the creative minds involved.
  3. Workshops. With Parents, Teachers and most importantly users, keep them creative and build in safety. Yeah you can have a lot of fun, and add value for your users.
Also without information and implementation, community guidelines are just taking up some bytes on your app and website.
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