TikTok Is Experimenting with ‘Footnotes’ to Address Misinformation

TikTok is rolling out a fresh feature named Footnotes, its unique version of community-based fact-checking akin to X’s (previously Twitter) Community Notes. The company revealed the pilot initiative on Wednesday via an official blog entry.

With Footnotes, TikTok aligns itself with other prominent social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram in utilizing user input to tackle misinformation. The idea is to leverage the shared knowledge of the TikTok community by granting users the ability to provide context and pertinent information to videos.

As stated in TikTok’s announcement:

“Footnotes will harness the collective knowledge of the TikTok community by allowing individuals to contribute relevant information to content on our platform. Initially, this feature will be trialed in the U.S. for short-form videos. It will complement our array of strategies that assist users in assessing content reliability and accessing credible sources, including our content labels, search banners, our fact-checking initiative, and more.”

To become a Footnotes contributor, users based in the U.S. can apply online. However, they must satisfy specific eligibility requirements: they should be at least 18 years of age, have been active on TikTok for over six months, and maintain a clean record with no recent violations of community guidelines.

The success of Footnotes will rely on feedback from the community. Users will have the ability to evaluate the usefulness of footnotes, and only those that achieve a particular threshold will be visible to a broader audience.

TikTok detailed:

“Footnotes will employ a bridge-based ranking system aimed at finding consensus among individuals who typically hold differing views, inspired by the open-source systems utilized by other platforms. It operates by allowing contributors with contrasting opinions to leave and rate the usefulness of a footnote. Only footnotes that meet the ‘helpful’ threshold will be visible to the community, at which point the larger community can also vote on it. The more footnotes are authored and assessed on various topics, the smarter and more effective the system becomes.”

While TikTok hasn’t announced an exact launch date, the company indicates that it intends to broaden access to Footnotes in the “coming months.”