TikTok and Facebook approved ads containing misleading information about the US election weeks before the vote, according to an investigation published on Thursday by an NGO examining the platforms' rules for verifying misinformation.
Global Witness sent TikTok, Facebook and YouTube eight ads containing false claims, such as the ability to vote online, for testing ahead of the US presidential election on 5 November.
The organisation found that TikTok, which allowed four of the ads despite its policy banning politically motivated ads, had the "worst results", while Facebook only allowed one ad.
Ava Lee, who campaigns against digital threats at Global Witness, said it was "shocking that social media networks continue to support misleading content", especially ahead of an election that will see a fierce contest between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.
These platforms have "no excuse" for "continuing to compromise the democratic process," she said.
A spokeswoman for TikTok told AFP that four of the ads were "mistakenly approved at the first level of content moderation" and that the app, owned by a company based in China, "will continue to implement its policy of banning political ads".
For its part, a spokeswoman for Meta, Facebook's parent company, condemned the results of the study, saying it was based on "a small sample of ads" and therefore "does not reflect how Meta applies its rules on a large scale".
As for YouTube, which is owned by Google, it initially approved half of the proposed ads and then banned their publication until supporting documentation was provided. Global Witness called this a "much stronger barrier" against misinformation.
Google, for its part, confirmed on Thursday that it would "temporarily pause" ads related to the US elections after the polls close on 5 November, as it did in 2020 during the presidential election between Democrat Joe Biden and Republican Donald Trump.
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