Upholding human rights

Technology is an essential gateway to the exercise of human rights. TikTok touches more than 1 billion people across the globe. We are committed to respecting the human rights of all people impacted by our platform, regardless of their ethnicity, orientation, background, or life experience. As a global entertainment company, TikTok has a responsibility to ensure that our community is treated with fundamental dignity and respect on our platform.

Our commitment to human rights

Responsibility for upholding human rights is shared: while governments have a duty to protect human rights, TikTok and other businesses also have a responsibility to respect those human rights. Respecting human rights is essential for TikTok to build and sustain trust among our employees, users, creators, advertisers, and others who are part of our community and who we engage with as a business.

Our philosophy is informed by, and we are committed to, several international human rights frameworks, including (1) the International Bill of Human Rights (which includes the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR], the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights [ICCPR], and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights [ICESCR]), (2) the International Labour Organization [ILO] Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, (3) the Convention on the Rights of the Child [CRC], and (4) the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights [UNGPs].

As part of our commitment, we will strive to respect human rights throughout our business and in our business relationships while also complying with applicable laws and regulations intended to promote human rights where we conduct business globally. We will continuously evaluate our operations to identify, assess, and address salient human rights risks, engage key stakeholders and rights holders, and prioritize areas where we have the greatest opportunity to have a positive impact.

Operating as a global company obliges us to recognize and abide by local law in the countries where we operate. In some situations, local laws may conflict with international human rights standards. When presented with these cases, our commitment to human rights remains and we seek to uphold our users’ rights to free expression and privacy. To do this, we assess the validity of the government request that is in conflict, and interpret it as narrowly as possible. In cases where we believe this is insufficient to respect our users’ rights, we will explore legal means to push back against requests that may undermine international law and international human rights standards.