TikTok’s algorithm serves vulnerable users even more harmful content in their ‘For You’ feed.
This not only impacts young people, but adults who suffer from eating disorders and mental health issues too.
TikTok is deadly by design.
Social media puts people in real danger.
The UK was shaken by Molly Russell’s case, where Instagram was named a direct contributor to the 14-year-old’s suicide. Molly engaged with posts about depression, self-harm or suicide prior to her death.
TW // suicide, self-harm
“Through public scrutiny we must shine a spotlight on this harmful content and take affirmative action to help protect the vulnerable people exposed to it.”
Spokesperson for the @mollyroseorg about our findings on TikTok’s harmful algorithm.
TikTok is putting profit over people’s safety. Millions of young and vulnerable people are targeted by TikTok’s algorithm because it’s good business.
But TikTok’s business means teens’ safety is at risk.
CCDH reported 1,000 abusive comments targeting 5 Republican & 5 Democrat women candidates running for office in 2024.
A week later, Instagram had taken no action against 926 of these hateful comments, including:
🛑 Sexist abuse
🛑 Racist abuse
🛑 Death & r*pe threats
Vice President Kamala Harris is one of the targets of the abusive comments we reported to Instagram. A week later, the platform had failed to act on 92%
They included:
🛑Sexist, false claims that she used sex & her gender to succeed
🛑Racist, false claims targeting her ethnicity
🚨NEW: We found that Midjourney keeps generating misleading images of US & EU politicians - despite its new policy to stop election disinformation.
The AI tool generated convincing deepfakes in 40% of our tests, including images of Biden, Trump & Macron. thetimes.com/article/2c9dea…
We tested Midjourney & ChatGPT Plus with election disinfo prompts – and found a stark difference between the AI tools.
While ChatGPT generated convincing images 3.3% of the time, Midjourney’s security features were easily bypassed to create harmful disinfo ahead of big elections
After we showed that @midjourney could easily generate election disinfo, the platform announced a ban on users creating images of Biden & Trump ahead of the US election.
📢 Our new report shows that the platform’s new safety policy is far from enough. apnews.com/article/midjou…
🚨NEW: Meta & Google are hindering access to reproductive health information in Africa, Asia & Latin America - while profiting from anti-abortion misinfo ads.
@CCDHate & @MSIchoices found platforms are misleading people seeking reliable medical info⤵️ metro.co.uk/2024/03/27/goo…
Meta has restricted @MSIchoices’ ads promoting accurate information on reproductive health services in Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Nepal, Nigeria & Vietnam.
These included vital content about cervical cancer screening tests, IUDs, contraceptive pills & safe abortion.
Despite @MSIchoices only providing abortion services where law permits, @Meta sometimes remove their ads for vague reasons such as “sensitive content”.
In Ghana, MSI’s team said @Google has been so restrictive that they can’t use “pregnancy options” in their ad campaigns.
🚨WIN: CCDH has had Musk’s baseless & intimidatory lawsuit against us thrown out of court! Our amazing lawyers at @KaplanHecker aided us in getting Judge Breyer to dismiss the case.
“The Court notes, too, that X Corp.’s motivation in bringing this case is evident. X Corp. has brought this case in order to punish CCDH for CCDH publications that criticized X Corp.”
Judge Charles Breyer in his ruling granting CCDH’s motion to dismiss.
“Throughout Elon Musk’s loud, hypocritical campaign of harassment, abuse, & lawfare designed to avoid taking responsibility for his own decisions, CCDH has remained quietly confident in the quality and integrity of our research & advocacy.”