By Chloe Mari A. Hufana, Reporter
THE Commission on Elections (Comelec) and TikTok have signed a memorandum of understanding to campaign against misinformation ahead of Philippine midterm elections in May.
TikTok also launched a Philippine-specific election tab on its platform called Election Center, working with election watchdogs to reach out to Filipino voters.
“By reaching out to the Filipino electorate through our platform and specifically through the Election Center, we empower them not only to make their voices heard on the platform but to also make their voices heard in the polling booth come election day,” TikTok Public Policy Manager Peachy A. Paderna told a news briefing in Taguig City on Tuesday.
Under the deal, TikTok will disallow monetization and ads from politicians and candidates.
“We are not banning political expression on the platform; people are free to express themselves politically on TikTok but we don’t allow politicians, governments and political parties to make money on the platform,” she said. “We also don’t allow the monetization of political content.”
To do this, TikTok has 21 fact-checking partners globally and about 40,000 moderators to check misinformation and disinformation.
“We are continually partnering with the Comelec, and we are in constant conversation with them on the implementation of their rules and regulations, including the registration of social media accounts,” she added.
Comelec Chairman George Erwin M. Garcia said the election body and video-sharing platform would hold activities as part of the public information campaign.
TikTok creators and influencers, politicians and candidates will undergo briefings about the rules of the platform. A podcast about voter education is also in the works for this year’s midterm elections.
Mr. Garcia said they are also working with the Philippine branches of tech giants Google and Meta in fact-checking and preventing misinformation and disinformation.
While there are no written agreements with other social media platforms, Comelec spokesman John Rex C. Laudiangco said they have agreed on a fact-checking process.
“Our agreement is that, insofar as suspension and takedown, they will wait for the Comelec’s go-ahead before they act,” he said. “What’s good about this is that when we look at our rules and community policy, they align well. So, we won’t have a hard time.”
He said there are about 49 million voting-age Filipino TikTok users.
Filipinos will choose their congressmen, 12 of the 24-member Senate, mayors, vice-mayors and members of city councils on May 12.
