Audio podcast

TikTok's Creative Center, originally used by advertisers to track trending hashtags, was criticized for lack of content moderation and alleged bias. TikTok has now made changes, disabling links to hashtags related to the Israel-Hamas conflict and focusing on industry-related hashtags. This has raised concerns about information accessibility and transparency. Critics argue TikTok may be trying to control or limit content. This highlights the tension between social media platforms and their responsibility in providing open access to information in complex geopolitical situations. Hello, everyone, and welcome to my podcast. Today I'll be talking about how TikTok, a popular Facebook sharing app, has made a significant change to its tool, the Creative Center. Following its use by researchers and lawmakers to analyze content related to the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Creative Center was originally designed to assist advertisers in tracking trending hashtags on the platform. This tool was accessible to all users and provided data on a number of videos associated with specific hashtags and insight in the audience that viewed these videos. Critics of TikTok, particularly its ownership by the Chinese company ByteDance, utilized this tool to argue that the app lacked effective content moderation and suggested that Beijing's influence dictated the content displayed on the platform. Interestingly, TikTok itself had previously used hashtag data to counter assumptions of bias towards the Palestinian side of the Israel-Hamas conflict. However, in recent development, TikTok altered the Creative Center by eliminating the search function and disabling links to hashtags related to the Israel-Hamas war in U.S. politics. Consequently, the tool now concentrates on presenting data regarding the top 100 hashtags across different industries like pets or travel. This adjustment has raised concerns and questions about TikTok's approach to information accessibility and transparency. Some critics argue that the restriction of specific hashtags pertaining to critical geopolitical events and political subjects might indicate an attempt by TikTok to control or limit certain content. The modification to the Creative Center illustrates the growing tension between social media platforms. This is a very important issue because this change sparks important discussions about the role and responsibility of social media platforms in ensuring open access to information while navigating complex geopolitical landscapes.