TikTok: AI-driven disinformation, abuse and misinformation pushed onto young voters

A BBC investigation has found that young voters in key election battlegrounds are being recommended fake AI-generated videos featuring party leaders, misinformation and videos peppered with insulting commentary.

TikTok has emerged as the new social media battleground in this election, with political parties launching meme wars on the app in an attempt to reach younger voters.

But a BBC project looking at the content promoted by social media algorithms found that alongside funny montages, young people on TikTok are being exposed to misleading and divisive content, shared by everyone from students and political activists to comedians and anonymous, bot-like accounts.

The videos, which have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times, spread unfounded rumours that a major scandal had prompted Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak to call an early general election, as well as unfounded claims that Sir Keir Starmer was responsible for the failed prosecution of serial paedophile Jimmy Savile.

A satirical fake AI-generated video shows Rishi Sunak declaring “Please don't throw us out, we'll be sorely disappointed!” and making unfounded claims about how the Conservative leader spends public money, including that he plans to send “big bucks to his mates”.

Other AI-generated videos share misleading claims about national service pledges for 18-year-olds, suggesting young people will be deployed to current war zones in Ukraine and Gaza.

Some of these are described in the captions as satire or parody, but comments show some users are confused about which claims are fact.

TikTok told the BBC that it was increasing its investment in tackling misinformation in the UK general election, adding fact-checking experts to its existing resources and employing AI-labelling technology.

The fictitious profiles represent a range of voters in battleground districts across the UK, offering insight into what content is being promoted to different types of people. The profiles are private and have no friends — they only like, follow and watch content that relates to their personality traits, based on Natsen's research.

I looked at the feeds of the profiles of three of these fictitious voters in Bishop Auckland, a former “red wall” constituency that was a Labour target and is now held by the Conservatives, and our undercover voters are younger.

A look at social media feeds shows that while other sites have seen a surge in political content, TikTok is seeing the most active conversations, especially among younger voters.

TikTok has grown rapidly since the last election. According to media regulator Ofcom, it will be the UK's fastest-growing news source for the second year in a row in 2023, with 10% of adults using it this way. One in 10 teenagers say TikTok is their most important news source.

TikTok is engaging a new generation in the democratic process: Whether they use the social media app or not, events unfolding on the site can shape the narrative around elections and candidates, even in unfounded ways.

The content promoted by Jack, a disaffected 31-year-old character from the show Undercover Boater, includes TikToks using speech bubbles to misrepresent quotes from Labour politicians, including comments on immigration, transgender rights and Brexit, as well as a false claim that the Shadow International Development Secretary had called for “abolishing the Army”.

Other videos that appeared on Jack's feed included threats to “euthanise” Rishi Sunak in the comments section, as well as racist comments made about him.

Messages like “Vote Reform UK” were shared repeatedly in the comments sections of many videos, far more than comments supporting other parties. TikTok users have also started to notice the comments, with many calling the poster a “reform bot,” suggesting it may be a fake, automated account.

I contacted some of the commenters, who have photos and names on their profiles, and was told they are real people living in the UK and are not officially affiliated with, encouraged or directed by, the UK Reform Party. However, some commenters were anonymous, with no profile picture and only a numeric username – a common feature of fake accounts – and they did not reply to my messages.

Whether they are real people or not, their statements can create the impression that the party they support has more support.

Another Undercover Voter character, 25-year-old Chloe, based in Bishop Auckland, was created with no interest in politics whatsoever, but around one in 10 posts on her TikTok feed are political memes or funny videos, including official content from the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK.

This includes Rishi Sunak's first TikTok post on the new Conservative account about national service, in which he makes it clear that not all 18-year-olds are being forced to join the military.

Also included is a video from the Labour Party's official profile of Cilla Black singing “Surprise Surprise,” with the caption: “Perspective: Rishi Sunak turns up on your 18th birthday and sends you off to war.”

A third masked voter, Louise, in her 50s and politically undecided, was further recommended TikToks targeting political leaders with offensive comments, as well as satirical montages and parody videos of policy announcements such as national service.

I tracked down the people behind the videos and posts shown to masked voters.

A 16-year-old girl from southern England created a satirical edit of Rishi Sunak's first TikTok video about national service and said she was surprised her content had become so popular so quickly.

“I didn't create this account specifically for the election and I originally made the TikTok just as a joke and never expected it to get over 400,000 views,” she said, adding that she is not affiliated with any political party and has not been paid to make the TikTok.

“In my opinion, social media is now the only platform where young people can have a voice.”

She said she knows satirical content can be “controversial” and understands her video “may mislead people,” but she hopes people understand that it was just meant to be a bit of fun.

Some users posted threatening comments towards Mr Sunak alongside the video, but the 16-year-old said she doubted anyone would wish harm on a politician.

Dozens of other users I've messaged who are creating this content are also in their late teens and early twenties and want to get involved in creating political videos to engage others their age in the election.

They all told me that while they may support political parties, they are not paid for their posts and are not officially involved with any campaigns.

As one political science student told me, “Political parties don't have to worry about misleading people because they mislead others with their opinions about other parties.”

Another person, from Coventry, who posts videos about Reform UK, said he set up the account in February because he wanted to “make them more popular in an unofficial way”. He said he is a party member and does not receive money for making TikToks.

He worries that satirical content, including his own posts, may unintentionally mislead people on TikTok, and his account was restricted by the app for spam posts.

A TikTok spokesperson told the BBC that the company had increased investment in “ensuring people can find trustworthy information on TikTok”, launched a “UK Election Centre with fact-checking experts” and deployed “industry-leading AI labelling technology”.

The company also said it had put in place “additional policies to aggressively combat foreign election interference” and removed 97% of videos containing misinformation about elections or social issues before anyone could watch them.