Diving Into the Deep End of Baseball

My two most used social media platforms are TikTok and Instagram I thought it would be interesting to dive into how they curb misinformation and the efforts they go through to decrease misinformation on their platforms

TikTok: An important tool TikTok has is its automated moderation system that scans for violations of the platform’s community guidelines, if the content gets flagged it will stop others from seeing it while it is being reviewed by content moderators who will evaluate the content that was posted with more context and precision. From April-June 2021 more than 81 Million TikToks were removed from violating these guidelines.

With such a large platform like TikTok it is almost impossible to eliminate misinformation completely though TikTok has a responsibility to keep misinformation under control otherwise it can spread and overtake the entire app. https://www.captechu.edu/blog/tiktok-and-war-misinformation

Earlier this year In January TikTok was at risk of being banned in the United States, it was taken down for a day and then later was put back up. The United States Government wanted to ban the app that nearly 170 million users in the United States were using due to concerns the Chinese government was stealing our information. TikTok has maintained that no U.S user data has or would be shared and that banning the app violates the constitutions first amendment rights. There was a thought that China would use TikTok to influence American opinion by promoting content that undermine democratic processes. This was all over the news and misinformation was quickly spread throughout the United States. I had friends that were scared to use the app because they thought that they were being watched and that their information was being stolen. It was important for TikTok owners to come forward and put an end to this spread of misinformation and comfort those who believed they were using an app that was deemed “unsafe” https://www.ohio.edu/news/2025/01/banning-tiktok-turning-point-u-s-data-security-or-threat-free-speech

Congress wanted to pass a bill to get foreign election misinformation off of social media. If TikTok were to get sold to domestic owners like they wanted. Th site would be the same and misinformation would still be just as prominent as it was under previous TikTok owners. The importance of getting new owners for the popular app was to get information away from U.S users which was on of the main purposes of the ban. But what would really change if there were new owners? The app would be the same and misinformation would still be spread at the same rate.

During the election posts were getting taken down for no reason, they would get taken down just because it was a view or take that was controversial, its important that we highlight getting rid of misinformation not opinions. It violates the first amendment and how the app should be used.

Tiktok is looking to advance AI transparency and literacy. They are expanding auto-labeling to AIGC created on other platforms by launching the ability to read content credentials which would directly help stop the spread of misinformation

Instagram: On the instagram website help center they have many different tools and information on how to detect misinformation and reduce the spread of fake news. When you go on instagram and view a post there is a button to report the content. You can report fake posts and get them taken down to help decrease the spread of misinformation. Click Report and then false information, this tool is super helpful for all of the instagram users across the world.

An import thing to remember when looking at a post or an account is to acknowledge where the post is coming from is it a reliable source or is it a source that is known for parody’s and whether the tone suggests its a joke and is for fun. A common account I view is MLBONFOX this is where I see baseball posts and where crazy trades and signings get posted, a popular parody account is MLBONFAX its a account that post fake trades and AI voiced player interviews and there are times I read it and think its the real account and I have to remember to look at the username and account before I go sending it to family and friends and spreading misinformation.

MLBONFAX was recently taken down https://www.mlbonfax.com/post/top-11-alleged-reasons-mlbonfax-got-banned-from-instagram Instagram took action to get this fake sports account taken down. This is where the importance of using the report button and doing research to help stop the spread of misinformation is super important, It leads to getting accounts like these taken down.

This summer on instagram I was constantly getting my instagram accounts copied with people trying to pretend to be me, they would use the same username as my personal account except they would change it by adding a period or an extra letter, something that wasn’t super noticeable and they would use my same profile picture and bio and go and follow people I follow and try to convince them I made a new account. I was able to report it and get it taken down within minutes.

These report tools that TikTok and Instagram have are super important in curbing misinformation and overall helping stop the spread of fake news on these large and popular social media platforms.