Mashable: Internal data shows that accounts with more than 5 million followers are treated with a "more forgiving" moderation procedure.

Ever tried reporting something on TikTok or Facebook that goes against the community standards and guidelines? Does it resolve your issue? Often , chances are it

According to Forbes, TikTok used a two-tier moderation system last year that favored the platform's most influential users. The publication recorded a meeting in September 2021 when the business discussed the "creator labels" function, which was only available to users with more than 5 million followers.

Engadget reported that many of these users are celebrities or influential people, so it makes sense that TikTok would moderate their accounts differently than other users.

"We don't want to handle these accounts the same way we do regular ones." Forbes quotes a TikTok employee who remarked, "There's a bit more tolerance, I'd say," during a discussion of the company's trust and safety policies. The company's website notes that "everyone and everything on TikTok" is subject to the company's Community Guidelines.

According to Forbes, a corporate representative said, "We are not more tolerant in reviewing accounts with more than 5 million followers." The representative also said that, unlike Facebook, the firm does not use different queues for moderation based on the number of followers an account has.

This wouldn't be the first time a firm has singled out its most powerful customers for special treatment if the allegation is true. According to an article published by The Wall Street Journal in 2021, Meta's XCheck technology has enabled millions of influential users to circumvent Facebook's and Instagram's policies.

The story describes an incident in which Brazilian soccer player Neymar's naked images of a woman who had accused him of sexual assault were "prevented" from being removed by Facebook censors. Prior to Meta's intervention, the post had over 60 million views. Despite Neymar's breach of the firm's community guidelines by posting naked photos of himself without his consent, the company did not terminate his account.

Compared to Facebook's XCheck, it appears that TikTok's preference mechanism is simpler. TikTok's threshold appears to have been solely numerical, as opposed to Facebook's fuzzier "newsworthiness" or "PR riskiness" criteria, which appear to have played a role in determining XCheck eligibility. A crisis management operations manager from TikTok's Trust & Safety team stated in a meeting tape from October 2021 that creator labels are only given to accounts with 5 million or more subscribers.