KUALA LUMPUR: TikTok Malaysia has denied claims that some 4,000 people have infiltrated its moderator group to conduct covert operations to promote only certain quarters.
TikTok's Public Policy head Hafizin Tajudin said Tiktok promotes videos to provide diversity for its users, however, no political ads were allowed under its new policy for government, politician and political party accounts (GPPPA).
"We do promote a small fraction of videos to help diversify the content experience and introduce celebrities and emerging creators to the TikTok community. However, we do not allow political ads on the platform, which is further strengthened through the changes in the policies for GPPPA that was made last year.
"To that end, we do not allow paid ads that promote or oppose a candidate, government, current leader, political party or group, or issue at the federal, state, or local level," he said in a statement.
On claims regarding a former employee serving as a content moderator to promote certain quarters, Hafizin clarified that their moderators did not have any authority or access to any forms of promotional tools for content.
"We have a robust quality assurance system in place to ensure that the political or personal opinions of our employees do not affect their work quality and ethics, including when performing content moderation tasks.
"TikTok's content moderation decisions are based on a set of clearly defined Community Guidelines and have layers of checks and balances including quality assurance and third-party fact checkers, to uphold safety and ensure fairness in moderation," he said.
Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil earlier expressed concern over rumblings on social media that the moderation level on the popular app in Malaysia was biased or prejudiced and said his ministry would meet TikTok representatives to study and review these moderators.
"From what I've seen on social media, some have begun questioning the moderation level of TikTok in Malaysia, with some claiming that the moderation level is biased or prejudiced against a particular side.
"I will be inviting TikTok representatives in Malaysia to study and review these moderators from a security perspective." he said.