TikTok has launched its global Brand Safety Centre.
The centre will serve as a central hub for insights, articles, partnerships and other information related to brand safety and transparency for the social media platform.
The site is divided into sections: Our Mission, Latest Announcements, Partnerships & Certifications, Transparency, Success Stories, Watch & Learn
Dave Byrne, TikTok’s global head of brand safety and industry relations, said: “The Brand Safety Centre reflects all of our recent developments in the area of brand safety, so I think it’s worth looking back at the past year to revisit some of the major milestones that helped make the Brand Safety Centre a reality for TikTok and its advertisers.
“Everything we do is underpinned by our four brand safety pillars, which guide us in our ongoing efforts to make TikTok the most trusted entertainment platform for brands.”
The first pillar Byrne noted was keeping their community safe with an “array of updated policies, products and initiatives that reflect our ongoing dedication to the safety of the TikTok community.”
The efforts include age appropriate privacy and safety settings, tools to promote kindness and combat bullying, curbing the spread of misinformation, and proactive campaigns to promote awareness around online bullying.
Pillar two is building brand-safe solutions, Bryne said: “We also expanded our offerings to advertisers that help ensure branded content shows up next to safe and suitable user videos. We now offer leading brand safety solutions for advertisers on TikTok: the TikTok Inventory Filter, and a post-bid solution from Zefr.”
He continued: “In Australia we are offering additional TikTok’s brand safety solutions that are verified by OpenSlate. This allows us to provide the most comprehensive brand safety coverage with end-to-end solutions that range from pre-bid filtering to post campaign reporting. This also includes filtering content categories that are in adherence to the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) principles.”
The third pillar is championing transparency and accountability, which the company hopes will provide deeper insights into their operations.
“To keep our community informed about the steps we take to keep our community safe, we launched our first two quarterly Community Guidelines Enforcement Reports earlier in 2021. These reports bring visibility to the content and accounts removed for violating our Community Guidelines, as well as insights into the volume of fake activity we stopped or removed in our effort to preserve authenticity on TikTok,” Bryne said.
The company also announced the establishment of a new physical Transparency and Accountability Centre in Ireland, in addition to the existing centers in Los Angeles and Washington DC where virtual tours continue to be hosted, as well as a revamped Transparency Centre website for the social media platform.
Pillar four is partnering for progress, which Bryne noted helps partnerships help inform their own operations and push the industry forward for the greater good of the digital ecosystem.
He said that over the last year TikTok expanded and deepened our partnerships including joining Technology Coalition, participating in the inaugural and 2nd GARM Aggregated Measurement Reports, a seat on the board of the Brand Safety Institute, becoming TAG Brand Safety Certified globally by the Trustworthy Accountability Group, and listening to feedback in areas of digital safety, security and more from their community and the Asia Pacific Safety Advisory Council.
Looking ahead, TikTok says they hope to expand partnerships and solutions into new markets, to work with industry groups to set definitions and standards for critical brand safety issues such as misinformation and ad adjacency.
The platform also hopes to support TikTok creators and brands working together to tell their stories, enable small and medium-sized businesses to make informed decisions to keep their brands safe, and to adapt and expand our solutions to match new product innovations.
Byrne said: “There is no final destination to reach when it comes to brand safety. TikTok will continue to adapt to any changes both online and offline. We will continue to work alongside the industry to tackle complex challenges.
“We will continue to expand our expertise through partnerships with experts and third parties. This is an exciting time in the development of our platform that brings entertainment, creativity and joy to more than a billion people around the world and we are excited for you to join us on our journey,” he added.