This week, TikTok made some major updates to their community guidelines, specifically under the "frauds and scams" section. In a comment to BuzzFeed, a spokesperson for the brand said, "TikTok has multiple measures in place to reduce the spread of misleading content, including content that aims to deceive people for financial gain."
To reduce further phishing and to protect users from financial abuse, the new guideline reads, "We do not permit anyone to exploit our platform to take advantage of the trust of users and bring about financial or personal harm." While multi-level marketing (MLM) companies—those that enlist employees to work on commission and encourage those hires to recruit more participants—are completely legal, the main income for members must come from product sales, not from recruiting new employees.
According to BuzzFeed, TikTok says it will "remove any content flagged by users, moderators, or its automated technology" in order to contain the spread of MLM strategies. "We remove content and accounts that violate these guidelines, which we identify through a combination of technology that automatically flags content to our moderation team for review, proactive investigation, and reports we receive from our community."
In the case of skin care and beauty, there are many popular MLM companies that follow the appropriate guidelines. As long as these companies are not promoting investment schemes, they are completely TikTok-friendly, but make sure to keep an eye out.
