Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, February 07, 2019/ Press Release/ —

• TikTok launches local safety initiative in India as part of #BetterMeBetterInternet global campaign in partnership with the Safer Internet Day organization
• TikTok announces a partnership with Cyber Peace Foundation to launch educational posters on online safety, to be distributed in schools and colleges nationwide
• To ensure the safety of users, TikTok combines technology with a robust content moderation team covering major regional languages in India

In support of this year’s Safer Internet Day (SID), TikTok, the world’s leading short video platform, launches #SafeHumSafeInternet, an India specific campaign as part of TikTok’s global #BetterMeBetterInternet initiative.

Partnership with Cyber Peace Foundation to promote online safety

As part of the #SafeHumSafeInternet campaign ushering in Safer Internet Day in India, TikTok also partnered with the Cyber Peace Foundation, an award-winning NGO and global think tank of cyber security and policy experts, to promote online safety. Together, they held an event in New Delhi today, to highlight and discuss the importance of online safety, educate internet users of safety practices to follow, along with efforts that should be taken to promote online safety.

Experts came together to share and discuss their views on online safety at this event spearheaded by TikTok and Cyber Peace Foundation. Participants included the following representatives:

• Dr. Angel Rathnabai, Assistant Professor, Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)
• Dr. Amita Dev, Pro Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women
• Dr. Neha Bajpai, Project Manager Information Security Education and Awareness (ISEA), CDAC
• Dr. Manoj Kumar Sharma Professor of Clinical Psychology SHUT clinic (Service for Healthy use of Technology) NIMHANS, Bangalore
• Siddhartha Jain, ACP, Cyber Cell, Crime Branch, Delhi Police
• Sandhya Sharma, Director, Public Policy (India), TikTok
• Shivani Kapila, a popular TikTok Creator

Together they spoke about the current online safety scenario in India, awareness about online safety among internet users, the various psychological effects of internet usage and laws on online safety including from a women and youth safety perspective.

To further illustrate and educate internet users on the various aspects of online safety, TikTok and the Cyber Peace Foundation launched eleven posters which will be distributed amongst an extensive list of schools and colleges pan India.

Commenting on this initiative, Purnendu Singh, Director, Strategy and Operations, Cyber Peace Foundation, said, “We are happy to be collaborating with TikTok and the rest of our stakeholders to work on online safety. The need is not only for awareness but also being proactive to ensure that every netizen is secure in the Cyberspace.”

“As a global community, safety is one of TikTok’s top most priorities. Through our partnership with the Cyber Peace Foundation and our safety initiatives, we look forward to a long-term partnership and play an even greater role in promoting online safety. In addition to user education, we, at TikTok, are continuously working to introduce additional features to promote safety. TikTok’s first of a kind Digital Wellbeing feature which limits the time users can spend on the app, is one such example,” said Sandhya Sharma, Director, Public Policy (India), TikTok.

#SafeHumSafeInternet In-app quizzes, new stickers, creator and celebrity videos on TikTok.

TikTok users in India can participate in the #SafeHumSafeInternet online challenge by applying customized stickers designed to encourage the adoption of positive online habits. With these stickers, users can embrace positive hashtags such as #likes, #Respect, #Positivity, #Creativity, #Security, and shove away negative hashtags such as #5badhabits #Cyber-bullying, #Negativity, #Trolls, #Anxiety, and #Haters. The challenge is currently ongoing and has garnered close to 40 million views so far.

Many popular Indian celebrities and TikTok users such as Arjun Kanungo, Shirley Setia, Neha Kakkar and Tamil TechGurujiamongst others also joined the #SafeHumSafeInternet initiative by creating and publishing short videos on TikTok promoting Safer Internet Day, encouraging users to be safe and sharing tips on how users can practice online safety.

Helping users understand safety better and equip users with online safety tips, TikTok also launched an in-app safety quiz in English and Hindi.

TikTok’s ongoing commitment to safety and digital wellbeing in India

TikTok, as a platform celebrates trends and embraces diversity, it has become the preferred platform for expression, given its lowered boundaries for sharing, creating, discovering – all made easy on the mobile. As it fosters a global community that thrives on creativity and expression, TikTok is committed to helping make its millions of users feel safe and comfortable within the community, which is why it is continuously enhancing and updating its policies, tools and resources to promote a positive and safe app environment.

As part of its efforts, TikTok has put in place protective measures by combining content moderation technology with a robust human moderation team. This team, which is based in over 20 countries and regions, now covers 36 languages, an increase of 400% in terms of language support from one year ago. In India, the moderation team covers major Indian languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Gujarati and more.

Safer Internet Day started as an initiative of the EU SafeBorders project in 2004 and taken up by the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres in Europe as one of its earliest actions in 2005, over the years, SID has become a landmark event in the global online safety calendar and is now celebrated in approximately 140 countries worldwide.

This year’s slogan, “Together for a better internet”, is a call to action for all stakeholders to join together and play their part in creating a better internet for everyone. Through its cooperation with SID, TikTok is playing an important role in raising awareness and addressing the critical and latest challenges in online safety today.

Promoting a safe and positive app environment is TikTok’s top priority, and it has a number of measures in place today to protect against misuse. These include privacy settings, filters, in-app reporting, and moderation.

For more information about TikTok’s safety efforts, please visit: www.TikTok.com/safety.

About TikTok

TikTok is the world’s leading destination for short-form mobile videos. Our mission is to capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge and moments that matter in everyday life. TikTok empowers everyone to be a creator directly from their smartphones and is committed to building a community by encouraging users to share their passion and creative expression through their videos. TikTok has offices in Beijing, Berlin, Jakarta, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, and Tokyo. In early 2018, TikTok was one of the most downloaded apps in the world. TikTok is available worldwide for iOS and Android.

For more information, please visit www.tiktok.com.

Source: PTI