TikTok Will Open a Transparency Center at Its Los Angeles Offices in May
Outside experts will get a first-hand look at how the video creation app moderates content
TikTok said it will open a Transparency Center in its Los Angeles office in May to provide outside experts with a day-to-day look at content moderation on its platform.
U.S. general manager Vanessa Pappas said in a blog post that outside experts will be able to see how TikTok’s trained content moderators apply its guidelines to review the machine learning-surfaced actions that are escalated to them, as well as how TikTok users and creators bring potential violations to their attention and how content that is allowed to remain aligns with the video creation application’s guidelines.
TikTok clarified that the Transparency Center will be a space within the office where visitors will be shown real-life examples of situations faced by content moderators, but they will not be observing moderators doing actual work.
Visits to the Transparency Center must be arranged with TikTok.
Pappas said that while the Transparency Center will focus on content moderation when it opens in May, it will expand into source code, data privacy and security, and that phase will be spearheaded by newly appointed chief information security officer Roland Cloutier, who will join the company in April.
She wrote, “We expect the Transparency Center to operate as a forum where observers will be able to provide meaningful feedback on our practices. Our landscape and industry is rapidly evolving, and we are aware that our systems, policies and practices are not flawless, which is why we are committed to constant improvement … We look forward to hosting experts from around the world and continuing to find innovative ways to improve our content moderation and data security systems.”
