TikTok marked Earth Day by beginning to censor climate change “misinformation.” The platform says it will begin deleting content that contradicts “scientific consensus.”
“On April 21, we will begin to ramp up enforcement of a new climate change misinformation policy which removes climate change misinformation that undermines well-established scientific consensus, such as content denying the existence of climate change or the factors that contribute to it,” the company said in a statement.
“As we do for all misinformation policies, we will work with independent fact-checking partners when applying this policy to help assess the accuracy of content.”
In the statement announcing the ban, TikTok boasted: “Popular hashtags such as #nature, #ocean and #climateaction have garnered 44 billion, 17 billion, and over 1 billion views respectively in the past year, showing our community loves creating content that celebrates, protects and restores nature through innovative solutions.”
TikTok is currently up against bipartisian support to ban the app in the United States due to its ownership by Chinese company ByteDance.
