TikTok (still) fails to detect disinformation ahead of Irish general election

Six months after a similar test tied to the EU elections, Global Witness submitted 28 advertisements containing clear, fabricated election disinformation, in both English and Irish, to TikTok ahead of Ireland's snap general election. TikTok approved more than 50% of the Irish-language ads and over 20% of the English-language ads, with eight of the approved ads in Irish specifically.

Approved content included false claims that proof of two Covid-19 vaccinations was required to vote, that postal votes could be cast after polls closed, and that votes could be submitted via Facebook. Global Witness linked the disparity to TikTok's own EU Digital Services Act transparency filings, which showed the platform lacks dedicated Irish-language content moderators, and noted the test came amid job cuts to TikTok's Irish operations and a broader shift toward AI-based moderation.

The organization concluded that TikTok's repeated failure to catch disinformation, particularly in a smaller EU language, represented a persistent blind spot in its election-integrity enforcement across multiple national votes.