TikTok trials 'Footnotes' feature to add context to potentially misleading videos

TikTok announced on Wednesday that it is experimenting with a new "Footnotes" feature, allowing users to include informative context beneath videos that could be perceived as misleading or lacking clarity.

The feature being tested in the United States, where the short-form video sharing app has some 170 million users, appears similar to Community Notes on X, formerly Twitter.

Unlike X though, TikTok will continue its own fact-checking program to fight misinformation, head of operations Adam Presser said in a blog post.

"Footnotes will draw on the collective knowledge of the TikTok community by allowing people to add relevant information to content on our platform," Presser said.

"It will add to our suite of measures that help people understand the reliability of content and access authoritative sources, including our content labels, search banners, our fact-checking program, and more."

Adult US users who have been on TikTok for more than six months and haven't violated its community guidelines were invited to apply to contribute to Footnotes.

Contributors will also be able to rate Footnotes left by other people.

Footnotes deemed as "helpful" will be made visible on TikTok, at which point any users can vote on them as feedback regarding their merit, according to Presser.

"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 said.

"That's why we're building Footnotes."

Footnotes will augment TikTok's existing integrity measures such as labeling content that can't be verified and partnering with fact-checking organisations such as AFP to assess the accuracy of posts on the platform.

Meta early this year ended its third-party fact-checking program in the United States, with chief executive Mark Zuckerberg saying it had led to "too much censorship."

As an alternative, Zuckerberg said Meta's platforms, Facebook and Instagram, would use "Community Notes," similar to the Elon Musk-owned X.

Community Notes is a crowd-sourced moderation tool that X has promoted as a way for users to add context to posts, but researchers have repeatedly questioned its effectiveness in combating falsehoods.

Supporters of President Donald Trump, among others, have contended without proof that conservative voices were being censored or stifled under the guise of fighting misinformation, a claim professional fact-checkers vehemently reject.

TikTok is adding Footnotes as its China-based parent company ByteDance faces a deadline to sell the app or have it banned in the United States.

Trump has said there was a deal on the sale of TikTok, but tariffs recently imposed by Washington on Beijing derailed it.

ByteDance, while confirming recently that it was in talks with the US government on finding a solution, warned that there remained "key matters" to resolve.