TikTok is launching a pop-up today created to warn users before they post a comment that may be “inappropriate or cruel”. The new feature is one of two that are being announced and were created to “promote kindness” in the service. The other is to Filter all comments, so that they appear only once approved individually.
The cruel new warning will appear if TikTok believes that a comment may violate community guidelines. “Would you like to reconsider posting this?” the pop-up box says before encouraging users to “Edit” or “Post anyway”.
Requests like these have been exploited by other social networks to reduce bullying and harassment. Instagram launched similar prompts in 2019, Twitter announced it was testing them last year, and they were also seen on Facebook. Instagram later reported that the results of introducing the prompt were “promising” and found that “these types of nudges can encourage people to reconsider their words when they get a chance”.
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The new Filter all comments feature can be enabled in the Comments filters menu, which already allows users to filter spam and offensive comments, or filter based on specific keywords. Once enabled, creators must manually approve individual comments before they appear on their videos.
As part of today’s announcement, TikTok also announced its partnership with the Cyberbullying Research Center, as it works on more anti-bullying initiatives.