Government agencies in the US have launched a probe into TikTok and how it handles child sexual abuse material, as apparently explicit content still manages to slip through the app’s moderation tools.
Among the agencies investigating the short-form video app include the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.
A section chief at US DHS claims the app has become a perfect platform where predators do online grooming—manipulative behaviors aimed to gain the trust of potential child victims and prepare them for future sexual acts. Meanwhile, the US DOJ is investigating flaws in TikTok’s privacy feature that predators are actively exploiting.
In a statement, TikTok maintains it has a zero-tolerance policy on child sexual abuse material, with 10,000 human moderators hired to monitor user-generated content uploaded by the app’s 1 billion hooked users. The app claims 96 percent of inappropriate content is removed before it could be viewed by anyone.
Source: Arstechnica