自2019年起，TikTok已全面禁止政治广告在其平台上投放。然而，这并未阻止部分广告商在平台上发布含有明显政治倾向的内容。NBC新闻发现，有52段视频被打上了“付费合作”、“#ad”或“#sponsored”的标签，在传播气候变化、枪支暴力等涉及政治话题的信息时违反了TikTok的规则，同时这些视频获得了上万至数十万人次的关注。
尽管根据TikTok的政策规定，“平台不允许可包含政治内容的广告出现在任何变现功能中，包括付费广告、创作者制作带有政治色彩的内容获得报酬以及其它所有平台工具。”然而，在美国国会议员们长期担忧中国拥有的TikTok可能被用于影响美国民众的背景下，这一现状凸显了维护其平台免受政治干扰所面临的挑战。
据统计，仅在2023年的最后一个季度，TikTok就已经在其“选举诚信与民主政策”之前就移除了99%的违规内容。该平台上活跃着超过4万名全球范围内的信任与安全专家团队。一位发言人对此表示：“我们致力于通过选举保护平台的完整性和稳定性，并长期禁止所有政治广告，包括带有政治标志的内容。我们将持续删除违反指南的内容。”
尽管如此，NBC新闻还是找到了数十段看似经过付费推广、旨在促进社会政治议题讨论的视频，其中包括由左翼组织ActBlue赞助的影片。这些内容涉及应对气候变化、枪支暴力等议题，并且呼吁观众关注投票事宜。
尽管ActBlue没有对相关提问做出回应，但NBC新闻发给该机构的链接中的两个视频已从平台上被移除。在15条广告中，有数条鼓励人们进行选民登记，这些宣传是由TogetherSF Action、NextGen America等组织赞助的。其中一条来自TogetherSF Action的幻灯片影片已被删除。
值得注意的是，在一些非党派倾向的内容中也出现了带有“付费合作”标签或#ad的视频。例如，奥林匹克体操运动员乔丹·奇尔斯在一段标记为“付费合作”的2022年视频中，简单地鼓励观众确保自己的选民登记信息更新，并提供了一个名为Headcount.org的组织链接。
另外一些则直接呼吁关注特定议题或政策。比如，NextGen America发布的一段左翼非营利机构制作的影片中，一位TikTok创作者在化妆的同时谈论了一些与堕胎权相关的公投内容，并鼓励年轻人投票参与决策。
按照TikTok的规则，“提及选举、投票注册、提高选民出席率以及鼓励人们投票”的广告并不被允许。NextGen America的全国新闻秘书Shelby Purdum在对NBC新闻的回应中表示：“我们的宣传活动旨在遵守法律并符合各平台使用的条款。”她强调这些合作是“非党派性质，以教育为目的”。
此外，还有一些更具体明确的内容标签视频，在其中@_patrickkelly批评共和党提出的预算削减计划，如企图减少社会福利待遇等；而@hotsundayhome则呼吁支持《通胀减税法案》。
政治广告在社交媒体平台上的问题近期已引起研究者的关注。尽管NBC新闻审查的TikTok视频中没有发现明显的虚假信息迹象，但仍揭示了社交媒体上充斥着错误信息的现象。
值得注意的是，美国联邦选举委员会告知NBC，目前并无针对社交媒体影响者活动的具体规定。虽然2023年，该机构批准了一套与技术现代化相关的修正案，旨在去除过时技术的提及，并没有涵盖影响者相关条款。
新闻来源：www.nbcnews.com
原文地址：Banned political ads found on TikTok weeks ahead of 2024 election
新闻日期：2024-09-23
原文摘要：
TikTok has banned all political advertising on the app since 2019, but that hasn’t stopped advertisers from running what appear to be paid political messages on the platform. NBC News found 52 videos on the platform tagged with either a “Paid Partnership” label, #ad or #sponsored that have received up to hundreds of thousands views per video while spreading political messages that appear to violate TikTok’s rules. According to TikTok, the company does “not allow ads featuring political content across any of our monetization features, including paid ads, creators being paid to make branded political content, and other promotional tools on the platform.” TikTok stands apart among its big tech peers in banning political ads — Facebook, Instagram, X and Google all allow political advertisements. But TikTok, owned by Chinese-based parent company ByteDance, has also faced a unique level of scrutiny from lawmakers over national security concerns, facing down a law that the company is currently challenging in court that would ban the platform if it’s not sold to a U.S.-approved company. The continued presence of political ads on TikTok illustrates the difficulties in patrolling its own platform just weeks ahead of the 2024 presidential election and amid the court proceedings over its potential ban. A spokesperson for TikTok said that during the last quarter of 2023, the platform removed 99% of violations against its “Civic and Election Integrity” policy before they were reported by others. TikTok said that it employs over 40,000 trust and safety experts globally. “We are committed to protecting the integrity of our platform through elections and have long prohibited political advertising, including politically branded content. We will continue to remove content that violates our guidelines on an ongoing basis,” the TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to NBC News. After NBC sent some examples of apparent violations to TikTok, two videos were removed. For almost five years, U.S. lawmakers have been concerned about how Chinese-owned TikTok could be used to influence Americans. U.S. intelligence officials said in a July press call that they believe Russia, China and Iran will continue to use social media propaganda to influence U.S. elections. TikTok’s ad network offers one potential tool for anyone seeking quick influence on social media, and banned political influence campaigns appear to be slipping through the cracks. “TikTok is dealing with a specific political environment in the United States,” said Emerson College associate professor Vincent Raynauld, who studies the effects of social media on politics. “There’s an effort on the part of many U.S. elected officials to get rid of TikTok. There’s a PR component of it and a governmental relation part of it where they’re trying to make sure that they are aligned with some of the expectations that the U.S. government is putting out there.” Despite TikTok’s interest in removing political advertisements, NBC News found dozens of apparently paid videos promoting political issues and topics, including six sponsored by ActBlue, a left-leaning PAC and political fundraising platform. The videos promoted issues like efforts to combat climate change and gun violence. While ActBlue didn’t respond to a request for comment, both of the videos NBC News linked in an email to the organization have since been removed. Fifteen of the ads encouraged people to register to vote, with posts paid for by organizations like TogetherSF Action and NextGen America, which was created by billionaire Tom Steyer, who ran in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary. The TogetherSF Action slideshow has now been removed. Some of the videos were nonpartisan. A 2022 video marked as a “paid partnership” from Olympic gymnast Jordan Chiles simply encouraged people to make sure their voter registration is up to date, referring people to Headcount.org, run by a voter registration nonprofit. The video is still on TikTok. Other videos referred to specific issues or policies. In one video from NextGen America, a left-leaning nonprofit, a TikTok creator applies makeup while discussing specific ballot measures pertaining to abortion and encouraging young people to vote. “Wanna know what’s literally crazy? The fact that our reproductive health is literally on the ballot,” the creator says in the video. According to TikTok’s policies, “references to an election, including voter registration, voter turnout, and appeals for votes, such as ads that encourage people to vote,” are not allowed as ads on the platform. Shelby Purdum, NextGen America’s national press secretary, said in a statement to NBC News that NextGen’s programs are designed to comply with the law and the terms for using each platform. “Our campaigns in partnership with TikTok content creators are nonpartisan and for educational purposes,” she said. Other videos tagged with a “Paid Partnership” label or #ad were more even more specific, with @_patrickkelly criticizing House Republicans’ proposed budget for trying to cut Social Security benefits, among other measures, in a now-removed video and @hotsundayhome encouraging support for the Inflation Reduction Act. The findings come as recent research shows that political ads on social media platforms are often filled with misinformation. There were no obvious signs of misinformation among the TikTok videos NBC reviewed. Laura Edelson, an assistant professor of computer science at Northeastern University, said TikTok likely bans political ads outright because it is expensive for platforms to distinguish between “good” and “bad” political content. Blake Chandlee, TikTok’s president of global solutions, wrote in a 2022 blog post that the company’s aim with its policy on political advertising was to prevent divisive content and “promote a positive environment.” However, even with the tight restrictions in place, violations can still slip past its moderation technology and staff. In 2020, the BBC reported that some TikTok influencers were being paid to post political content. TikTok later took down individual videos after the BBC pointed them out. In 2022, Edelson and her team found that TikTok failed to stop most misleading political ads from being posted on the platform in a test run researchers set up. The Federal Election Commission told NBC News that “there are currently no FEC regulations that specifically address activities like social media influencers.” In 2023, the FEC approved a set of amendments related to technological modernization such as removing references to outdated technologies but didn’t include influencers.
