TikTok Combats Potential Ban With New Guidelines That Only Raise More Questions

TikTok is under the microscope in Washington as the Biden administration considers banning the Chinese video-sharing app, but the company has reacted with new community guidelines that only raise new questions.

The new guidelines, which TikTok released Tuesday, restrict discussions on climate change and vaccines, among other updates. The new guidelines even appear to allow the platform to ban what it deems “hateful organizations” for things they say or do away from the platform.

“We believe that everyone deserves to feel safe online, and that feeling safe is key to unlocking imagination and creative expression,” the company said in announcing the new rules.

Under the new guidelines, TikTok will ban “climate change misinformation that undermines well-established scientific consensus, such as denying the existence of climate change or the factors that contribute to it.”

Vaccines are also a newly regulated topic under the new guidelines. “Misleading statements about vaccines” are banned.

The new guidelines also ban “deepfakes” or AI-generated images and videos of young people and private figures.

The old TikTok community guidelines, which are set to expire April 21, ban “hateful ideologies” including “anti-LGBTQ” and the “organized hate groups” that embrace these ideologies. The new guidelines keep these bans. “Deadnaming or misgendering” a trans-identifying person is still banned under the new guidelines.

The old guidelines also banned “misinformation” defined as “content that is inaccurate or false,” but TikTok said it does not remove any and all inaccurate information.

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TikTok’s new guidelines expand what counts as misinformation.

Originally, TikTok banned simply “content that misleads community members about elections or other civic processes.” Now, TikTok will ban misinformation specifically about the “final results or outcome of an election.” The app will also suppress “unverified claims about the outcome of an election that is still unfolding and may be false or misleading.” The latter kind of content will not be eligible for the For You page, which is a personalized feed that serves as TikTok’s main content discovery tool.

Originally, TikTok also banned “misinformation related to emergencies that induces panic.” Now, the app will ban “unverified information related to an emergency or unfolding event where the details are still emerging.”

The Biden administration has threatened to ban TikTok in the U.S. over national security concerns about the way the Chinese-owned social media company handles Americans’ data. TikTok’s Chinese owners must give up ownership of the U.S. version of the app in order to avoid the U.S. ban, the Biden administration warned.

On Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew appeared before Congress and attempted to reassure lawmakers that Americans’ data is safe from the Chinese government. However, Chew declined to respond directly when asked whether Chinese officials at TikTok’s parent company ByteDance helped him prepare for the congressional hearing.

Chew also told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that he is against the Biden administration’s demand that TikTok’s Chinese owners sell the app or face a ban.

The Chinese government said Thursday it would “firmly oppose” the sale of TikTok as well.

A potential TikTok ban is popular among Americans. About 41% of Americans said they support the federal government banning TikTok, according to a new Washington Post poll. Just 25% of Americans say they are against banning the app, the poll found.

Earlier this week, Chew said that TikTok now has 150 million active users in the U.S., up from the 100 million TikTok said it had in 2020.

Gerard Piqué Makes No Apologies For Split From Shakira After Alleged Cheating Scandal: ‘I Keep Doing What I Want’

Former professional soccer player Gerard Piqué said he’s “very happy” and makes no apologies for his breakup with singer Shakira last year.

The couple was together for 11 years and share two children though they were never legally married. They announced their split in June 2022 amid rumors of Piqué cheating on Shakira. The athlete is currently dating Clara Chia Marti, the woman he was accused of cheating with.

“I keep doing what I want,” Piqué told El Pais during an interview via a translation. “The day I die, I will look back and hope I have always done what I wanted,” he added. “I want to be faithful to myself. I’m not going to spend money cleaning up my image.”

He went on, “The people that I love and care about are the ones who know me. The rest isn’t important to me. I spend my energy on being with my loved ones and giving them what I have. I’m very happy. There have been changes in my life and I have known how to preserve happiness.”

The father of two said he prioritizes his sons Milan, 10, and Sasha, 8, above everything else.

“It is about protecting them,” the 36-year-old soccer star continued. “That is the job of all parents with children. That is what I am focused on and that is my job as a father.”

Piqué made similar statements during a radio interview with a Spanish radio station on March 15: “People have a responsibility, especially those of us who are parents, to try to protect our children. I don’t want to say anything more, we each make the decisions that we think are best.”

“I don’t want to talk about it anymore,” he continued. “I think that in the end the only thing that matters is that my children are fine.”

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Shakira recently said there’s a “special place in hell” for women who don’t support other women after Piqué posted a photo of himself with Marti on social media.

“I feel complete — because I feel like I can depend on myself and I have two kids who depend on me,” she said of moving past the infidelity scandal, saying she had to be “stronger than a lion” to endure it.

“That strength, in order for it to be real and not a façade … it needs to be the result of a great pain,” Shakira said. “Accepting that pain and tolerating the frustration because there are things in life that don’t turn out the way we want them to.”