PETALING JAYA, April 14 — TikTok Malaysia’s head of public policy Hafizin Tajudin said that the social media giant is prepared to handle potential inflammatory content that goes against its community guidelines, ahead of the upcoming state elections.
Aside from its ongoing content moderation efforts, Hafizin said that as the polls get closer, TikTok Malaysia will focus more on "trust and safety” initiatives that aim to educate users under its #SaferTogether campaign.
"We will create more awareness content to educate users on the do’s and don’ts, not just specifically on the state elections, but also on what would continuously be suitable and relevant,” he told Malay Mail when met at a sharing session with the media at Sheraton Hotel here.
Under its #SaferTogether campaign, TikTok Malaysia has been working with content creators on the platform to make videos on how to safely use its mobile application, such as how users can report inappropriate content or how they can control what comments they see.
One such video, posted on the TikTok Malaysia account on January 18, garnered over 103 million views and 134,500 likes.
For the state polls, Hafizin said that the awareness content it plans to create includes tutorials on how to verify sources of information, adding that the company may also recreate some of its related older material.
He added that TikTok Malaysia maintains a good relationship with various government bodies, including the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as well as the police, and are cooperating with them to curb trends and practices that are harmful.
To note, after the 15th general election last year, several inflammatory videos were posted on TikTok referencing the May 13, 1969, racial riots - an issue that garnered national attention.
TikTok then went on "high alert” and proceeded to "aggressively remove” such content.
Hafizin also commented on the scrutiny TikTok has faced overseas recently in regard to user data privacy and security.
He said that TikTok has nothing to hide regarding how it uses user data as its privacy policy is made public, and added that it has a rigid and robust system to safeguard user data.
"Of course what’s happening globally is upsetting, but in Malaysia, we are quite happy with our relationship with the current government.
"Meaning, we do have some discussions about the global developments, and the authorities have been receiving our response rather well that we do not pose any national security threats, (and that) data, user data, including Malaysians’ data are not transferred to any foreign governments,” he said.
TikTok is facing a possible ban in the US over concerns that the company may currently, or in the future, share user data with the Chinese government.
Meanwhile, last Tuesday, Australia became the latest country to ban having TikTok on government devices, a move previously made by several other nations including France and Canada.
