TikTok approved political ads with election misinformation even though it has a ban on political ads

Question

Claim: TikTok approved political ads with election misinformation even though it has a ban on political ads.
To summarize the claim, they say TikTok officially bans political advertising, including any ads related to elections, candidates, or political misinformation. However, an investigation by Global Witness found that TikTok approved several ads containing false election information, despite having clearly violated the platform’s advertising rules. This matters because TikTok promotes itself as a platform that protects users from harmful political content, especially misinformation. If ads containing election falsehoods can pass through TikTok’s automated (or human, im not sure) review systems, it makes it seem that the TikToks’s moderation tools may not be good enough. Political misinformation can influence voter decisions, especially on a platform with millions of young users.

Answer 1

This claim states that TikTok has given approval to political ads when the app has a ban on them. Overall this claim is true. There are a few articles with information on the subject, but most seem to get it from the examination in the article "Before the US Election, TikTok and Facebook Fail to Block Harmful Disinformation. Youtube Succeeds.", by Globalwitness.org.  They state that TikTok did the worse at banning these ads compared to other social platforms with 50% of ads containing false information about the election. They also make sure to add a link to TikToks policies surrounding it wich strengthens their credibility. The statistic was found by submitting false information election ads to TikTok and seeing if the platform would accept it. Despite TikToks anti polotical policy, they approved 4/8 of their false news ads. Possible biases this article could have is a negative outlook on social media, especially with Trump's recent aproval of TikTok. Overall the evidence supports the claim, it demonstrates a clear study that shows concrete evidence of TikTok approving these ads. Global Witness is also thought of as a credible website.