TikTok said Tuesday that it joined the European Commission’s Code of Conduct on Countering Illegal Hate Speech Online, which was introduced in May 2016 by the EC, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube.
The non-binding agreement marked a promise by those tech companies to speed the removal of illegal content and give users of their services more options to report violations such as hate speech.
Other tech companies that have joined since its inception include Dailymotion, Instagram, Jeuxvideo and Snapchat.
TikTok head of trust and safety for Europe, the Middle East and Africa Cormac Keenan wrote in a blog post, “Our Community Guidelines—the standards we ask our growing global community to adhere to—prohibit any form of hateful speech or ideology. We have a zero-tolerance stance on organized hate groups and those associated with them, like accounts that spread or are linked to white supremacy or nationalism, male supremacy, anti-Semitism and other hate-based ideologies. We also remove race-based harassment and the denial of violent tragedies, such as the Holocaust and slavery.”
He added, “Our ultimate goal is to eliminate hate on TikTok. We recognize that this may seem an insurmountable challenge as the world is increasingly polarized, but we believe that this shouldn’t stop us from trying. Every bit of progress we make gets us that much closer to a more welcoming community experience for people on TikTok and out in the world.”