Ticked off: TikTok approves EU elections disinformation ads in Ireland
TikTok approved all 16 election-disinformation ads ahead of the EU parliamentary elections; X rejected all of them and YouTube rejected all but two.
Executive summary
AI-generatedThis summary was generated by AI from the original report to make it easier to scan and cite. It is not a substitute for the source — read the original above.
Ahead of the 2024 European Parliament elections, Global Witness submitted 16 advertisements targeted at Irish users to TikTok, YouTube and X, each containing disinformation designed to suppress or obstruct voting, in violation of both EU election rules and the platforms' own advertising policies. Content included false claims that in-person voting was unsafe, fabricated fake-ID requirements, and bogus warnings of polling-station closures.
TikTok approved all 16 ads, a 100% approval rate; YouTube approved 2 of the 16 (roughly 12.5%); and X rejected all 16, halting every submission before it could go live. TikTok later attributed the failure to human error by a moderator who overrode its automated system's correct identification of the policy breach.
A follow-up Global Witness investigation six months later, timed to a snap Irish general election, found only modest improvement in TikTok's handling of English-language political disinformation and serious continuing failures in Irish-language content, with the company reportedly lacking moderators able to work in Irish — a gap that prompted Global Witness to file a complaint asking EU regulators to examine potential DSA violations.
Think this summary is wrong? Contact us.