TikTok
In the 2024 SMSI Platform Scorecard, TikTok receives a score of 67, a 10-point increase from its 2023 score. The company has made several notable improvements to its policies. For instance, in its revised “TikTok’s Anti-Discrimination Ad Policy,” the company explicitly prohibits advertisers from wrongfully targeting or excluding users from seeing ads based on their sexual orientation or gender identity. The company has also improved its transparency regarding LGBTQ users’ control over their own information. On a recently launched portal that contains policy disclosures and resources for LGBTQ users, the company provides that it does not collect users’ sexual orientation information. Moreover, TikTok discloses on this page that users who share information related to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity can delete this information. Of the scored platforms, TikTok is one of only two with a policy expressly prohibiting both targeted misgendering and deadnaming. It also continues to be the only company that does not require user self-reporting of a potential community guidelines violation in this area, and also employs technologies, human review, and/or reporting from other users to detect violations to the policy.
However, the company’s policies fail to adequately protect LGBTQ users in other key areas. The company discloses only limited information regarding the proactive steps it takes to address wrongful demonetization and removal of LGBTQ creators and content from ad services on the platform. TikTok also does not disclose any data showing how many pieces of content and accounts related to LGBTQ issues have been wrongfully demonetized or removed from ad services. While the company makes a public commitment to diversifying its workforce, it does not publish any data on its LGBTQ workforce.
Key Recommendations:
- Give LGBTQ users greater control over the content they see: LGBTQ users should have more options to control the content they see, and recommendation of content based on their sexual orientation and gender identity should be off by default.
- Be more transparent about the wrongful demonetization and removal of LGBTQ TikTokers: The company should publish comprehensive data on the wrongful demonetization and removal of LGBTQ creators and their content from ad services.
- Track and disclose progress towards meeting employment diversity goals: The company should publish annual data showing its progress towards reaching diversity and inclusion goals, and disclose the number of LGBTQ employees across different teams.