TikTok has been criticised for failing to include a number of key safety features on the Lite version of its app, which is designed to perform better over slower internet connections and is particularly popular in some Asian, African and Latin American markets.
According to a new report by the Mozilla Foundation, TikTok Lite “lacks basic protections that are afforded to other TikTok users”, including labelling for videos that contain graphic, misleading or AI-generated content. In those countries where TikTok Lite use is common, the Foundation says, the missing safety features could have “potentially dangerous consequences in the context of elections and public health”.
When Universal Music had its big falling out with TikTok earlier this year, the music company raised various platform safety concerns, and the wider music industry has been calling for AI-generated content to be clearly labelled by all digital services.
Meanwhile, in some countries governments have been putting more pressure on social media and other digital platforms to deal with potentially harmful content. TikTok Lite isn’t available in many European countries, but when it launched in Spain and France the European Union launched formal proceedings under its Digital Services Act because of concerns about a feature specific to the app that rewards users for watching more videos.
In many of the countries where TikTok Lite is popular there is a lot less regulation, something the Mozilla Foundation notes in its report. “Technology platforms have a history of neglecting users outside of the US and EU, where there is markedly less potential for constraining regulation and enforcement”, it says.
Obviously, TikTok needs to restrict the number of features available on its Lite app to meet the objective of it performing better over slower internet connections.
However, Claudio Agosti, co-founder of AI Forensics, which partnered with the Foundation on the report, says, “The safety features TikTok Lite lacks aren’t complex and are perfectly compatible with a lower-bandwidth app. TikTok’s decision to ignore these safety measures is clearly a choice, not a technical necessity”.
Having raised its concerns, the new report makes a number of recommendations, in particular that TikTok owner ByteDance should “prioritise the development of a TikTok Lite application that places equal emphasis on user safety compared to its main TikTok app”.
For its part, TikTok has been dismissive of the report. A spokesperson says, “There are several factual inaccuracies in this report which fundamentally misrepresent our approach to safety. The fact is content that breaks our rules is removed from TikTok Lite the same way as our main app and we offer numerous safety features which we would have explained if Mozilla asked us before publishing their report”.