TikTok Shares Update

Helping to Protect wildlife on TikTok and Beyond

Republished from https://www.worldwildlife.org/blogs/sustainability-works/posts/helping-to-protect-wildlife-on-tiktok-and-beyond

Author:
Ayse Koçak, TikTok

At TikTok, our mission is to inspire creativity and bring joy. We're proud that over 1 billion people come to our platform each month in search of entertainment and an outlet to share what matters to them. We know that this would not be possible without our community's trust in our ability to maintain a safe and welcoming environment. We believe that everyone should be able to express themselves creatively and be entertained, but not at the expense of other forms of life.

Last year, TikTok joined the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online, which was established in 2018 by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), TRAFFIC, and IFAW to bring together e-commerce, search, and social platforms across the world to reduce wildlife trafficking online. Since then, we've worked closely with WWF to enhance our policies, launch in-app safety features and tools, and encourage education around the life forms with which we share a planet. In doing so, we aim to continue our work to prevent harmful content and behavior, including wildlife trafficking, from proliferating on the platform.

Protecting against harmful content

At the heart of how we work to promote safety on TikTok are our Community Guidelines, which serve as our code of conduct, illuminating our vision for the platform through detailing the types of behavior and content we do not permit. Our guidelines expressly prohibit content that depicts or promotes the poaching or illegal trade of wildlife, and we offer a dedicated reporting category within the app for our community to flag this type of content to us. Further, our Advertising Policies do not allow the advertising of products derived from endangered, vulnerable or threatened animals or the sale of animals themselves.

Using the policies as a guide, our global safety team then works to enforce them. I'm proud to be part of the team tasked with keeping TikTok free from this type of violative content. My team is made up of experts from diverse backgrounds—spanning product, policy, compliance, and NGOs—all of whom are dedicated to achieving the highest standard of safety. We're grateful to get the opportunity to work with the Coalition and WWF, which help us strengthen our policies and improve our methods for enforcement and content removals. Under our partners' guidance, we have blocked around 400 keywords and hashtags related to wildlife trafficking. Though illegal wildlife trade content is not popular on TikTok, we must nevertheless take a proactive stance in identifying and removing harmful content.

Supporting education and conversation

However, content removals are only one part of a holistic safety approach. Empathetic interventions and education are also necessary. To encourage learning and understanding, we redirect searches so that when people try to find content that violates our policies around wildlife trafficking, they will see a message reminding them of our policies. Additionally, we've worked with WWF to introduce public service announcements that appear when people search for or click on specific wildlife-related hashtags or content, with the goal of encouraging our community to learn more about this deeply important area and directing them towards authoritative information.

A vibrant and growing community has formed on TikTok to create and share content on important topics including environmentalism, and we witness this conservation-focused content reach new audiences every day. We're proud of these creators—whose ranks include television networks, parks, veterinarians, marine biologists, activists, and more—who use TikTok to tell their stories, teach people about the importance of wildlife, and express their passion for protecting the environment and all the life that depend on it. It's no surprise that hashtags like #conservation and #wildlife have garnered over 12 billion views within the app.

Partnering for stronger impact

Inspired by our community, last year we celebrated World Sea Turtle Day, a day that recognizes the importance of protecting sea turtles. Activities such as poaching and commercial fishing have led to 6 of the 7 sea turtle species being threatened with extinction. The plight of the sea turtles and other animals serve as a reminder of why we are dedicated to continuing to learn from partners, like the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online and WWF, and evolving our methods for identifying and removing content and activity that could harm wildlife. And while there is no finish line when it comes to safety, we know that preventing wildlife trafficking online is critically important work we must continue because we want TikTok to play a positive role in the lives of those both on and off the platform.

Huya celebrates Global Tiger Day

The Chinese saying goes, “one mountain cannot tolerate two tigers,” but today, 33 traditional handcrafted tigers will appear on the Huya live streaming platform to recognize Global Tiger Day.

In 2010, The International Tiger Conservation Forum designated the 29th of July as Global Tiger Day to highlight the decline in global wild tiger populations. In the past 100 years, tiger populations have gone from one million strong to becoming an endangered species. Habitat loss, insufficient food, and illegal trade are the driving factors for this decline.

Currently, three subspecies, the Bali, Java, and Caspian tigers are extinct, and the South China tiger is functionally extinct. Sumatran and Malayan tigers are critically endangered, while Bengal, Siberian, and Indochinese tigers are endangered.

To mark Global Tiger Day 2021, TRAFFIC and the China Wildlife Conservation Association (CWCA) have collaborated with Huya, a member of the Coalition To End Wildlife Trafficking Online, to launch a live streaming campaign called ‘Protecting the King in the Forest.’

Artisans will demonstrate three types of traditionally crafted ‘tigers’ through egg decorating, paper cutting, and cloth painting. The campaign calls on people to support tiger conservation by creating these tiger-themed ornaments – made from sustainable materials – rather than purchasing real tiger products. This will also help promote green transformation for the carving and collection industry and green collection among consumers in China.

A traditional craftsman Wang Qiwang, also a presenter on Huya, has created 11 delicately decorated tiger-themed eggs to mark each year since Global Tiger Day began. Huya’s official Weibo account will distribute several of Wang Qiwang’s decorated eggs to people actively participating in this campaign.

“Egg decorating is known as a ‘fragile art’, reflecting the situation that many endangered species such as wild tigers face. But at the same time, eggs can also symbolize life. I hope that through the art of egg decorating, I can call on everyone to support wildlife conservation.”

Wang Qiwang, traditional craftsman and presenter on Huya

Also invited to represent tigers through their traditional skills are Fu Zhao-e from Ningxia, renowned in China for her paper-cutting artistry and Guo Yulin, a famous cloth painter from Xi’an.

“Tiger conservation requires efforts from all different sectors. As a new member of the Coalition, Huya’s engagement in raising conservation awareness among its customers will greatly contribute to protecting tigers in the wild. TRAFFIC stands ready to support more private sectors to carry out campaigns to fulfil their corporate social responsibility.”

Ling XU, Director of TRAFFIC’s China office

The organizers hope that through the campaign, the public will pay more attention to the situation of wild tigers worldwide and make their contribution to Protecting the King in the Forest.

An Update from TikTok

Republished from https://newsroom.tiktok.com/en-gb/update-on-protect-wildlife-online. Visit TikTok’s newsroom page for full video features.

Ayse Koçak, Policy Manager, Illegal Activities & Regulated Goods

Earlier this year, we were thrilled to join the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online. Established in 2018 by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), TRAFFIC and IFAW, the Coalition brings together e-commerce, search, and social platforms across the world to prevent wildlife trafficking online. Collaboration with partner organisations is critical when it comes to informing, shaping and strengthening our approach to safety, and today we would like to provide an update on how we're continuing our work to protect wildlife.

To raise awareness among our community about the dangers of trading endangered species online, we will soon introduce two Public Service Announcements (PSA) that will be visible to people whenever they search for specific wildlife-related content or hashtags. We use PSAs to inform our community about certain issues and redirect them towards authoritative content.

World Sea Turtle Day

We're announcing these updates to coincide with World Sea Turtle Day. Over the last two centuries these epic mariners have been pushed to the brink by human activity. Habitat-loss, poaching and commercial fishing have wrought havoc on these beautiful creatures - today, six of the seven species are threatened with extinction. Trading sea turtle species or their products is prohibited under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) - yet criminal exploitation and illegal trafficking persists. The internet has also brought new avenues for criminals to exploit and traffic wildlife, which is why we're working with the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online to introduce these changes.

Environmental champions and wildlife campaigners are working each day to save these magnificent animals. It's our hope that by implementing these changes, we can play our small part in ending their exploitation by criminal gangs and opportunists. TikTok is home to thousands of creators who are passionate about protecting the natural environment, celebrating the wildlife that we share this planet with, and sharing their stories with our community along the way.

To date, there has been over 360 million views of content labelled #Conservation and over 165 million views of specific #SeaTurtle content. Some of TikTok's top creators in this area include Marine Biologist @carissaandclimate and National Geographic's TV Vet Paul Ramos (@vetpaulramos).

Dr Paul Ramos, Veterinarian (@vetpaulramos) said:

"Wildlife around the world is under threat from human activity, including climate change, habitat loss and illegal trafficking. Saving our most beloved creatures is a complicated undertaking - but we can all help protect the natural world. I've seen how deeply the TikTok community cares about our planet and the creatures we share it with, and social media users have an important role to play in protecting wildlife online. I'm asking them to continue playing their part, whether that be reporting suspicious content, spreading awareness online or learning about the dangers of posing for photographs with exotic or endangered animals such as tigers or elephants."

Carissa Cabrera, Marine Biologist (@carissaandclimate) said:

"Our oceans and wildlife that call it home are under extreme pressure from the climate crisis, overfishing, and pollution. Illegal trafficking of wildlife, including their eggs and babies, are leading threats to survival for species like sea turtles. Throughout the world, even in my home of Hawai'i, wildlife trafficking is a growing problem. The internet can be a huge benefit for conservation efforts, but also brings new ways for traffickers to exploit our oceans. That's why it's so important that social media users report any suspicious content that they see online. I've witnessed the passion that the TikTok community has for the natural world, and I'm confident they will continue doing their part to protect our planet."

Our progress on tackling wildlife trafficking online

Our Community Guidelines make it clear that any content that depicts or promotes the poaching or illegal trade of wildlife is not allowed on our platform and will be removed when identified. Since joining the Coalition in March 2021, our teams have removed 73.5% of this kind of content before it received a single view. Our Advertising Policies also make it clear that we prohibit the advertising of products derived from protected animals or the sale of animals themselves.

Giavanna Grein, Senior Program Officer, TRAFFIC at WWF said:

“TikTok’s PSAs will help users better understand the link between wildlife content shared on the platform and the illegal wildlife trade, and empower them to help report suspicious content. Educating the public on this connection is an important step towards reducing wildlife trafficking across online platforms.”

We're excited to continue working with the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online to protect some of our planet's most endangered animals and keep our community safe from harm. We're confident that this work will help TikTok remain a platform that brings joy and inspires creativity.

Huya Joins the Coalition

Beijing, China, 5th June 2021 - On World Environment Day, video game company Huya announces it is joining the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online. Huya hopes to crackdown on the spread of harmful content related to wildlife through technical means and effective platform content checking.

The Coalition, convened by TRAFFIC, WWF and IFAW, aims to unite global technology companies to combat the illegal trade of endangered species and their products online. Since 2018, 41 technology companies, including Alibaba, Tencent, Google and Facebook, have joined the Coalition.

"Internet companies play an important role in combating the illegal wildlife trade globally," said Xu Ling, Director of TRAFFIC China. “As a leading live streaming platform, Huya's participation adds new strength to the Coalition. We also hope Huya's efforts will help more people, especially the young, increase awareness on wildlife conservation and refusing the illegal wildlife trade."

To enhance the risk control ability on the platform, Huya held a special training in collaboration with TRAFFIC, to raise their employees’ awareness of illegal wildlife trade. Experts trained more than 1,000 people on Huya’s security team on Wild Animal Protection Laws and the identification of commonly traded wild animal products.

“We are delighted to join the Coalition on the special occasion of World Environment Day. We will work with our industry partners to fight the illegal trade of wildlife online and protect nature. In the future, we will continue to regulate the daily stream content of anchors through the platform, actively disseminate wildlife protection messages to our anchors and viewers, and popularize relevant knowledge, contributing to the protection of the earth environment." - Li Meng, Senior Vice President of Huya

Huya, which offers live streaming to its users, intends to clamp down on illegal wildlife trade by using image and voice recognition to flag issues in real-time and remove them from its platform. Huya also intends to further develop AI identification models for wildlife based on the rich wildlife sample database of the Coalition and improve the accuracy of wildlife identification. In addition, Huya will support law enforcement authorities to combat offline illegal hunting and trading of wild animals and plants.

In response to the growing demand for live-streamed information, in April 2020, Huya and the Chinese Sturgeon Research Institute held a live stream where more than one million viewers witnessed the moment when the Chinese sturgeon returned to the Yangtze River. Due to its success, Huya plans to launch more popular science programs related to wildlife protection.

Welcome Douyin to the Coalition

22th April, 2021, Beijing Douyin, one of the most popular short video social media platforms in China, joined the Coalition today on Earth Day.

Douyin is committed to strengthening platform regulations to crack down on and prevent illegal wildlife trade. With support from Coalition conveners, Douyin has optimized their reporting mechanism related to wildlife, and set up a special working group for animal and plant protection. Based on the reporting mechanism, once a video has been verified as violating wildlife related policies, the dissemination of the video will be blocked, and content of intelligence value will be reported to relevant law enforcement departments.  

According to the Director of Douyin Risk Control and Information Security department, Douyin will continue to crack down on online wildlife trafficking and illegal information through technological innovation, including more actions on content review and search algorithm optimization.  

 Chenyue Ma, Senior Program Officer of IFAW, said, "The ever-changing and advancing internet technology has made detection and tackling of illegal wildlife trade online increasingly challenging. As one of the most popular short video platforms, Douyin’s effort in combating wildlife cybercrime will bring significant impact in reducing market accessibility. And we hope that 600 million Douyin users will become champions for wildlife conservation to help end online wildlife trafficking. "

In addition to strengthening platform regulation, Douyin is also cooperating with IFAW in developing a tool which utilizes machine learning and big data technology in identification of wildlife products and live animals in short videos. Once a video is identified by the tool as containing illegal content, the video will be removed or blocked. The tool is at final stage of testing and will be released in June to safeguard endangered wildlife.

Jing Chen, Senior Programme Manager of TRAFFIC China warmly welcomed Douyin’s joining of the Coalition, and is committed to continuing to support Douyin to combat illegal trade in both wild fauna and flora on their platform by regularly sharing IWT monitoring results and providing capacity building for their security management staff. TRAFFIC also worked closely with Douyin to deliver a Social Behaviour Change (SBC) training workshop on 25 March 2021, which aimed to support Chinese government officials and industry partners to use the SBC toolkit (http://www.trafficchina.org/sbc) to design targeted demand reduction campaigns for wild meat consumption in China.

A key point to solve the problem of illegal wildlife trade online is continuously improving the public's legal awareness. Manager of Douyin Corporate Social Responsibility department said that, “As one of the most popular social media platforms in China, Douyin will work closely with NGOs to call on millions of Douyin users to actively participate in illegal content reporting and wildlife conservation message promotion in the future, leaving no room for online illegal wildlife trade.”

About Douyin

Douyin is the most popular short video social platform in China, which was launched on September, 2016. In August 2020, the daily users on the platform reached 600 million.

Official website: www.douyin.com/