TikTok Spreading Misinformation? New Report Says Their Search Engine Shows Fake News

While social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have been heavily scrutinized for misinformation and fake news propagating within their platforms, many have overlooked TikTok. Now, however, a new report has shown that their search engine results are riddled with false information.

NewsGuard researchers recently conducted a report surrounding TikTok. They searched for content about the biggest news topics, from COVID-19 to climate change to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and found that TikTok users are likely to encounter misleading information if they ever use the platform's search engine.

The researchers found that 1 in 5 videos suggested by the platform after using their search engine contained misinformation. For example, if one were to search "mRNA vaccine," five of the first ten videos contained misinformation. This includes debunked claims that the COVID-19 vaccine causes "permanent damage in children's critical organs."

NewsGuard is a firm that monitors misinformation and is an internet watchdog. It also looked into information about abortion, the 2020 election, the January 6 Capitol insurrection, climate change, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine and found "misleading videos scattered among more accurate clips."

TikTok Owner ByteDance Not Doing Enough to Combat Misinformation, Says NewsGuard Head

TikTok is currently the second most popular domain in the world after Google, according to the Associated Press. However, this is dangerous because it is easy to find misinformation on the platform.

NewsGuard founder Steven Brill found this troubling, especially with TikTok's popularity among young people. Brill also questioned whether ByteDance, the Chinese firm that owns TikTok, is doing enough to stop the spread of fake news and misinformation. However, he also wondered if they are also deliberately allowing misinformation to proliferate in the U.S. and Western democracies to sow confusion.

He told the Associated Press, "It's either incompetence or it's something worse."

TikTok Responds to Report's Findings

Following the report's release, TikTok responded by saying that the methodology that the misinformation watchdog used was flawed and that they are making it a priority to combat misinformation, according to Channel News Asia.

A TikTok spokesperson stressed that the platform's community guidelines have made it clear that they do not allow harmful misinformation, and if found, they will remove it from the platform. The spokesperson also claimed that they partner with "credible voices" to "elevate authoritative content on topics related to public health" and work with independent fact-checkers as well.

However, despite its claims, misinformation is still rife throughout the platform. Researchers have found that its own search tool seems to be designed to steer its users into misinformation in some cases. For example, when the researchers typed "COVID Vaccine" in the TikTok search engine, it suggested including other keywords such as "COVID vaccine exposed" and "COVID vaccine injury."

Researchers ran the same keyword search on Google and found more accurate information, including information on vaccine clinics, the different types of vaccines, and booster shots.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: Researchers warn TikTok is a growing source of misinformation - CBS News