Testing a new feature to enhance content on TikTok

We’re announcing the test of Footnotes, a new feature that will give our community more context about content on TikTok. Footnotes will draw on the collective knowledge of the TikTok community by allowing people to add relevant information to content on our platform. To start, this feature will be tested in the U.S. for short form videos. It will add to our suite of measures that help people understand the reliability of content and access authoritative sources, including our content labels, search banners, our fact-checking program, and more.

TikTok gives over 170 million Americans the freedom to express themselves and share, resulting in an immensity of content to discover and learn from. Whether the content discusses a complex STEM-related concept, shares statistics that could misrepresent a topic, or updates about an ongoing event, there may be additional context that could help others better understand it. That’s why we’re building Footnotes.

Our comments section and other tools like Stitch and Duet already empower people to share their opinions and engage in dialogue around content. Footnotes offers a new opportunity for people to share their expertise and add an additional layer of context to the discussion using a consensus-driven approach.

Who can add a footnote?

Starting today, U.S. users can apply to be a Footnotes contributor, and we’ll also notify U.S. users who meet our eligibility requirements, including:

1. They have been on the platform for more than 6 months.
2. They are 18 years old or older.
3. They have no recent history of violating our Community Guidelines.

We’ll open access to start contributing footnotes over the coming months. Once admitted, contributors can add footnotes to videos and rate those left by others.

Publishing footnotes

Footnotes will use a bridge-based ranking system designed to find agreement between people who usually have different opinions, inspired by the open-sourced system that other platforms use. It works by allowing contributors with differing opinions to leave and vote on the helpfulness of a footnote. Only footnotes that meet the threshold for "helpful" will be visible to the community, at which point the broader community can vote on it, too. The more footnotes get written and rated on different topics, the smarter and more effective the system becomes.

Footnotes augments our existing suite of platform integrity measures and features. For example, we add labels to content that can’t be verified. We provide access to reliable information through TikTok’s Election Centers and in Search. We also continue to partner with more than 20 IFCN-accredited fact-checking organizations to assess the accuracy of content on TikTok in over 60 languages and in 130 markets around the world. Footnotes adds to these efforts with more ways to add helpful details that may be missing, ultimately enriching discussions on TikTok and improving the experience for viewers, contributors and creators alike. We’re excited to work with each group as we continue to test, get feedback, and build on the program.