Platform upgrades features to promote healthy growth of its global user community

HONG KONG- Tik Tok, a short video-sharing platform, today announced several planned feature upgrades as part its ongoing effort to maintain a safe, healthy and creative environment for its global user community.

These additional features — including enhanced privacy settings, account deletion, private messaging access, and parental controls — will be live for all users by July.

Launched in 2016, Tik Tok empowers individuals to express themselves through short user-generated music videos and share their talent and creativity with peer groups who have similar interests.

User privacy and protection is a critical issue for all social media and technology companies, and Tik Tok is committed to maintaining a safe and healthy environment for its user community to create, celebrate and share their creative talents.

The upgrades that Tik Tok is rolling out in more than 20 markets will be available to all users by July. Users will receive in-app notifications as the new features become available, including:

• Enhanced Privacy Settings — Community members will see a new option under Tik Tok’s privacy settings allowing more control over their account. For example, Tik Tok users will be able to set their videos to “Private” so that only approved followers can see them.
• Account Deletion — Tik Tok will add a new function that allows users to delete their account from within their Privacy Settings. This is an easy and fast way for members who no longer wish to use the platform to permanently delete their accounts including profile, videos, comments, likes and followers.
• Private Messaging — Community members will now only be able to share private messages with their Tik Tok friends. They will no longer be able to send messages to or receive messages from members they are not connected with. This new messaging system will further protect the safety and privacy of the Tik Tok community.
• Parental Controls — New functionality will give parents and legal guardians additional tools to help teens use the app in an age-appropriate manner. For example, the “time lock” feature will allow parents to set a limit on how much time their teen can spend using the app. Notification banners will also be added to videos that may be inappropriate for younger audiences.

These changes are part of Tik Tok’s continual efforts to improve the experience of its community members. Tik Tok’s new features complement its existing algorithmic and human moderation systems in ensuring our community standards.