TikTok safety chief: Policy update aims to support "well-being of our community"

TikTok Head of U.S. Safety Eric Han told Axios at an event Tuesday the platform's new community guidelines, updated Tuesday, aim to "support the well-being of our community" beyond cracking down on hoaxes on the app.

The big picture: The updated guidelines expand TikTok's "dangerous acts and challenges" policy to ban content that promotes harmful hoaxes. Viral challenges on the app have led to school shooting threats and students vandalizing schools.

• TikTok also said it's adding clarity on the types of hateful ideologies and practices that are banned, including deadnaming, misgendering and misogyny, and content that promotes conversion therapy programs.

The new policy bans "any content that promotes dangerous behaviors," Han said. "So part of that is expanding the type of content related to eating disorders that we will remove."

• "So for instance, instead of strictly removing content that is traditionally seen as eating disorder content, we'll also begin to remove disordered eating content. So that means think about extreme calorie counting or content promoting what might be seen as over-exercise."

Han said teams work to quickly remove content that could be harmful.

• "If you search for something that we've determined is a dangerous challenge, you won't find content around that," Han said. "We're also working to educate people around online challenges and steps they can take to assess viral warnings, including hoaxes. "

Go deeper: TikTok updates rules to combat viral hoaxes