TikTok and Comelec ink partnership deal on Tuesday in Taguig City. Ched Gatchalian, ABS-CBN News 

MANILA — Pledging to protect election integrity through helping spread verified information, TikTok Philippines on Tuesday formally launched its "Philippine Election Center", an in-app feature that shows informative content to its users.

During a press briefing at NEO Building in Taguig City, TikTok Philippines Public Policy Manager Peachy Paderna said the Election Center contains videos and information that can raise voters' awareness regarding election rules and updates. By clicking or searching any poll-related term, the section will pop above and catch the users' attention.

Comelec, TikTok ink deal for 2025 election

The launch coincided with TikTok Philippines and Commission on Elections' signing of memorandum of understanding, as the two partnered to promote digital literacy amid preparations for the midterm elections.

Comelec Chairman George Garcia emphasized the cruciality of responsible voting for May polls, since this will serve as a blueprint for the conduct of 2028 Presidential and Vice Presidential elections.

"We see the 2025 elections is definitely an offshoot of what will happen in the near future, especially the presidential and vice presidential elections. So if we can weed out the "undesirables" in the social media using the platform of TikTok.. If we can do that in 2025, we can do it in 2028," he stressed, highlighting that the present battle focuses more on digital.

It can be recalled that even the Philippine National Police was recently tapped by the Comelec for solutions against online misinformation and electronic vote-buying, saying "fake news" now adds to the traditional election problems of "guns, goons, and gold" in the Philippine politics.

PNP to tackle fake news, electronic vote-buying in 2025 polls

Aside from the Election Center, Paderna underscored the other efforts of TikTok to promote truth and responsible voting. Among these are their 21 global fact checking agencies that help them take down posts with misinformation and disinformation, systems geared to track malicious content, briefing for Comelec officials, and prohibiting of political ads.

"We are also doing briefing for election candidates... And we are doing a briefing for content creators as well. What we want is for creators to get a really good sense of what our community guidelines look like. We want them to understand what our political advertising policies are —  which is, generally, we don't allow political advertising," she stressed.

"We do also encourage users to report violating posts, but we do also have systems and human moderation that compliment all of that," Paderna added.

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