Breaking News: TikTok Introduces Crowdsourced Fact-Checking Feature in the United States – Footnotes Debut!

TikTok announced the public launch of Footnotes, a crowdsourced fact-checking system, on Wednesday. The feature is reminiscent of X’s Community Notes and Meta’s similar program. Initially, Footnotes will be rolled out to U.S. users as a pilot program, allowing contributors to both write and rate notes on TikTok videos.

All U.S. TikTok users have the ability to view rated notes deemed helpful and submit their own ratings in return. The company first announced its intentions to test Footnotes in April, describing it as a means to provide more context around TikTok’s content.

TikTok utilizes a bridging algorithm designed to find consensus among users with varying viewpoints. If both sides rate a note as helpful, it increases the likelihood of the note’s accuracy according to this method, and also mitigates against brigading, where one side may attempt to sway a decision through coordinated voting.

Notes aim to enhance users’ understanding of content on the platform by providing additional information and context. In some cases, the video poster may intentionally misrepresent a situation, while in others they may have simply overlooked relevant details or updates.

TikTok began accepting applications from U.S. users to become contributors back in April, provided they were at least 18 years old, had been active on TikTok for more than six months, and had no recent history of violating TikTok’s Community Standards. Since then, nearly 80,000 U.S. users have qualified as Footnotes contributors.

Although new to TikTok, community-driven fact-checking systems such as Footnotes have been in existence for several years. Twitter initially introduced the concept, originally called Birdwatch, in 2020, and expanded it globally in 2022 under Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter/X. Similar systems have also been inspired by X’s open-sourced Community Notes concept at other social media companies.

In an attempt to appease conservatives who felt that traditional fact-checking systems were biased, Meta abandoned fact-checking this year in favor of its own Community Notes system in the U.S., raising concerns about misinformation spread. YouTube has also experimented with a similar system through its feature called Notes, which launched last year.

TikTok asserts that Footnotes will complement, rather than replace, its existing Global Fact-checking Program. The company continues to collaborate with over 20 IFCN-accredited fact-checking organizations in over 60 languages and 130 markets around the world.