tiktok misinformation

TikTok a hotbed of US election misinformation, analysts say

4Nov

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Technology

TikTok a hotbed of US election misinformation, analysts say

[ad_1] Election misinformation is spreading on TikTok ahead of the US midterms despite the company's policies. Election misinformation is spreading on TikTok ahead of the US midterms despite the company's policies -- and watchdogs are concerned about its effect on young voters as more Americans use the platform as a source of news.Posts spreading unfounded claims of voter fraud, falsehoods about mail-in ballots and misleading videos about different state laws have found a home on the immensely popular app. Perhaps more troubling: TikTok has approved paid political advertisements containing blatant misinformation, a practice the company said in 2019 it had banned. "Hackers can easily change the election results! Don't bother voting in the midterms," says one such ad.It was one of sever...

Beware! Don’t Try The NyQuil Chicken TikTok Challenge

[ad_1] US health regulators are warning about the dangers of a new TikTok challenge that has teens cooking chicken with the cold medication NyQuil. US health regulators are warning about the dangers of a new TikTok challenge that has teens cooking chicken with the cold medication NyQuil. The so-called “sleepy chicken” trend involves cooking chicken breasts, marinated in NyQuil, in a pan. Nyquil contains acetaminophen, dextromethorphan and doxylamine, and boiling medication can change the concentration and properties of the ingredients, the FDA warned. “Even if you don't eat the chicken, inhaling the medication's vapors while cooking could cause high levels of the drugs to enter your body,” the statement explains. The...

Climate change, politics to Ukraine, TikTok search results rife with misinformation: report

[ad_1] TikTok is serving up misinformation to users searching for news about politics, climate change, Covid-19, the war in Ukraine and more, according to a report released Wednesday. Toxicity and false claims are a "significant threat" at TikTok, which is becoming a go-to online venue for young people to search for information, according to a study by NewsGuard, a media watchdog. NewsGuard describes itself as a "journalism and technology tool" that rates the credibility of websites and online information. "Even when TikTok's search results yielded little to no misinformation, the results were often more polarizing than Google's," NewsGuard said of its findings. NewsGuard in September analyzed the top 20 results from 27 TikTok searches on news topics, findin...