Brand Safety at TikTok: Keeping our community safe

Around the world, people look to TikTok as a source of entertainment and joy, and with billions of TikToks being shared and viewed every month, it’s our responsibility to make sure that everyone feels safe, including brands.

TikTok's commitment to brand safety revolves around three key principles: safety, transparency and accountability. From policies to product to practices, we’re working hard to constantly improve in all of these areas and stay ahead of the curve in an ever-evolving industry.

As keeping brands informed of our safety initiatives is an important part of TikTok’s commitment to transparency, let’s dive a little deeper into the steps we’re taking to keep our platform safe.

While you make TikTok videos, we make them brand safe

Take a scroll through any TikTok feed and you’ll see that our platform is a place where people feel comfortable, free and empowered to express themselves authentically. We want brands to feel the same way—to have total confidence in the environment where their content will appear. To achieve this, we’re constantly optimizing our platform to better serve brands who want to tell their stories safely and securely—and to connect with audiences around the globe.

What does brand safety at TikTok mean exactly? Asking for a friend.

Brand safety has historically been understood as protecting brands from the negative effects that may occur when their ads appear next to inappropriate content. That being said, brand safety is constantly evolving and different brands and advertisers often have their own definitions. In order to evolve ourselves, we take a mission-based approach to brand safety. That mission—to create the most trusted environment for brands, built on a foundation of safety, transparency and accountability—is what drives everything we do. Because when it comes to the safety of your brand, it all boils down to trusting where your content shows up.

Brand safety is extremely important, but it’s not something that most business owners want to think about every time they interact with their online audience. You want to be able to trust that brand safety is taken care of—and that’s where TikTok comes in. At TikTok we’re committed to creating a positive environment for your brand's messaging.

How TikTok helps keep your brand safe

Safety isn’t a side concern at TikTok—it’s at the very core of who we are, permeating every element of our platform. We take a holistic approach to brand safety, and we’re always developing new solutions to improve on every level. TikTok’s all-encompassing focus on safety is broken down into four key pillars:

1. Keeping our community safe

2. Building brand-safe solutions

3. Championing transparency and accountability

4. Partnering for progress

Pillar #1: Keeping our community safe

Our highest priority as a company is to protect our community and empower creators to authentically express themselves. We make every effort to keep our platform a welcoming space for everyone. This is actually where brand safety begins, because prioritizing the safety and security of our users also creates a positive environment for brands.

Harmful content and inappropriate behavior have no place on TikTok; that's why we are continuously reviewing and evolving our policies, practices and products:

Policies

We’ve implemented numerous policies to create a safer platform, including age restrictions and Community Guidelines.

Age restrictions

TikTok is an app for ages 13 and over. New users must enter their age at our neutral age gate (does not indicate to prospective users what the minimum age requirement is), and those who are under 13 won’t be able to register an account. Parents can also block TikTok on their child’s phone via the Apple App Store or the Google Play store, both of which have rated TikTok for ages 12 and over.

Community Guidelines

TikTok's Community Guidelines are the foundation for maintaining a safe and welcoming app and are driven by our mission to inspire creativity and bring joy. The guidelines spell out exactly what types of behavior and content are not allowed on the platform.

A community is a living thing, and so are our Community Guidelines. We update them regularly to evolve with users’ behavior and mitigate emerging risks. For instance, in 2020 we updated our Community Guidelines to include new policies to counter misinformation and disinformation, bolstered our policies on bullying and harassment and expanded our policies around harmful activities by minors. Rest assured that with safety as our top priority, we’ll stay on top of the ever-changing online space to make sure that everybody stays protected.

Practices

Policies fall flat without proactive measures to ensure they’re being implemented. Our moderation practices are built around user safety, and we are continuously optimizing our approach through internal innovation and industry partnerships.

TikTok’s content moderation practices combine next-generation technology with robust human intuition and response. All content uploaded to TikTok passes through technology-based moderation. TikTok's global team of moderators review content that has been flagged by technology, reported by users or reached a viewership threshold—24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

But is it working? Our latest Community Guidelines Enforcement Report revealed that the content on TikTok is overwhelmingly positive. In Q2 2021, less than 1% of all videos uploaded to TikTok were removed for violating the rules.

• 87.5% of violating videos were found and removed before they received any views at all.

• 94.1% of these videos were removed before being reported.

• 93.0% were removed in less than 24 hours after being uploaded.

While the numbers do not represent 100% success in catching inappropriate content, they do show our commitment to action. And we’re always striving to enhance our practices and keep TikTok safe for everybody.

Product

In addition to policies and practices, the TikTok app itself is designed with safety at its core, from parent-friendly controls to user education.

Safety controls

We give TikTokers ownership of their experience through a robust set of controls to manage messages and comments, restrict interactions and easily report content. Unlike other platforms, it’s not possible to send images in comments or messages on TikTok. Protecting younger creators. We’re committed to safety for all TikTok users, but especially for those who are just starting out on their digital journeys. Younger users (ages 13-17) have age-appropriate privacy settings and controls designed specifically for their age group. For example, users must be 16 or over to send a direct message and accounts under 16 are set to private by default.

Protecting younger creators

We’re committed to safety for all TikTok users, but especially for those who are just starting out on their digital journeys. Younger users (ages 13-17) have age-appropriate privacy settings and controls designed specifically for their age group. For example, users must be 16 or over to send a direct message and accounts under 16 are set to private by default.

Family Pairing

Every parent knows that raising children requires striking the right balance between giving them autonomy and keeping them safe—and that balance changes continually as they grow and mature. We make it a little easier with Family Pairing, which lets parents and guardians connect their TikTok accounts with their teens’ TikTok accounts. Parents can guide the type of content available to their teens, control a range of settings like messaging, search, discoverability, comments and liked videos, and promote healthy screen time habits.

Safety education

Knowledge is power—and learning is fun on TikTok. We endeavor to make safety education both entertaining and informative, and we do just that on our @TikTokTips channel. Here we partner with TikTok creators to help teach our community about safety and security, from password tips and policy reminders to important digital well-being topics.

There is no finish line with brand safety

At TikTok, we are working hard to create a safe place for your brand on TikTok through our dedication to protecting our community, building new brand safety solutions, staying transparent and accountable, and prioritizing partnerships. We’re proud of the steps that we’ve taken to keep our community safe, but we’re not finished yet. As our platform grows, we're working every step to build the world's safest place for users and brands.