TikTok users being fed misleading election news, BBC finds

The BBC has discovered that TikTok, a popular social media platform among young people, is filled with misleading and fake news about politicians. This is concerning because many young voters use TikTok as a source of information. The BBC conducted an investigation into the content being recommended to young voters on TikTok and found that it includes fake AI-generated videos featuring party leaders, misinformation, and abusive comments. These videos are being shared by a wide range of users, including students, political activists, comedians, and anonymous accounts. Some of these videos have gained hundreds of thousands of views and spread unfounded rumors about Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer. There are even fake AI-generated videos of Rishi Sunak making false claims about his use of public money. TikTok has responded to these findings by increasing its efforts to counter misinformation for the UK general election. They have added a fact-checking expert and are using AI-labelling technology to identify potentially misleading content. The BBC's Undercover Voters project, which created fake profiles on social media to analyze the content being promoted, found that TikTok had the most lively political conversation, especially among younger voters. According to media regulator Ofcom, TikTok was the fastest-growing source of news in the UK for the second year in a row and is used by 10% of adults as a news source. This means that TikTok is playing a significant role in engaging a new generation in the democratic process, and the content they are exposed to could have a significant impact on their perceptions of the election and the candidates.