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(CNN Business) ––
TikTok announced Tuesday that it will strengthen its efforts to regulate dangerous content, including fraud and harmful posts that promote eating disorders and hate ideologies.
The platform plans to lean on creators to spread awareness of risky hoaxes, expand the scope of the ban to eating disorder content, and add clarity around prohibited speech and behavior.
The move comes after a viral hoax, originating from the platform, caused fear and backlash from authorities last year.
In December, a TikTok trend warned of upcoming violence in schools.
While the threats were vague, they caused school closures across the United States.
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Hoaxes about the deaths of public figures have gone viral on the platform.
Also false rumors that men were planning a "National Rape Day."
Representatives from TikTok, Snap and YouTube faced questioning at a congressional hearing on online safety for children last October.
Which generated a series of security updates.
"Our policies are designed to foster an experience that prioritizes safety, inclusion and authenticity," Corman Keenan, TikTok's director of trust and safety, said in a press release announcing the new policy.
"They take into account emerging trends or threats observed on the internet and on our platform."
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As part of the updates, TikTok announced a new category of "dangerous acts and challenges," after previously lumping such content with suicide and self-harm.
In addition, the platform indicated that it will ask creators to create videos in which they urge their followers to take specific steps when viewing content: stop, think, decide and act.
This campaign seeks to inspire young users to take a pause from challenge videos, consider whether the content is harmful, decide, and then report anything deemed dangerous.
The platform has also asked creators to spread the hashtag #SaferTogether (#MásSegurosJuntos) to promote awareness of risky content.
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Beyond the reclassification, the company did not provide specific information on how its approach to fraud moderation will change with the new guidelines.
A broader approach to moderation
Another update includes a broader approach to moderation of eating disorder content.
In the statement, Keenan also reiterated a permanent ban on videos that disrespect people's names, identify others as the wrong gender, expose misogyny, and feature conversion therapy.
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"Our moderation teams work very diligently to quickly and expeditiously remove that infringing content and redirect tags when someone might be looking for them on our page. For example, if you're looking for something we've determined is a dangerous challenge, you won't find content about it." TikTok US chief security officer Eric Han said in an internet security conversation hosted by Axios on Tuesday, stressing that users should be aware of the risk of viral trends and online scams. He also urged TikTokers to view online videos with a questioning eye.
These efforts are part of a broader TikTok approach to content moderation.
Which includes a combination of technology and people to review videos and enforce community guidelines.
News of the updated security policies also breaks as the company says it will invest in new ways to classify the suitability of content on the platform based on age.
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