TikTok has banned all political advertising on the app since 2019, but that hasn’t stopped advertisers from running what appear to be paid political messages on the platform. According to TikTok, the company does “not allow ads featuring political content across any of our monetization features, including paid ads, creators being paid to make branded political content, and other promotional tools on the platform.”TikTok stands apart among its big tech peers in banning political ads — Facebook, Instagram, X and Google all allow political advertisements. The continued presence of political ads on TikTok illustrates the difficulties in patrolling its own platform just weeks ahead of the 2024 presidential election and amid the court proceedings over its potential ban. The findings come as recent research shows that political ads on social media platforms are often filled with misinformation. There were no obvious signs of misinformation among the TikTok videos NBC reviewed.

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Persons: TikTok, hasn’t, ”, Vincent Raynauld, “, There’s, ActBlue, Tom Steyer, Jordan Chiles, Shelby Purdum, Republicans ’, Laura Edelson, Blake Chandlee, Edelson Organizations: NBC News, Facebook, Google, NBC, Emerson College, ActBlue, Democratic, Republicans, Social, Northeastern University, BBC, Commission, FEC Locations: U.S, Russia, China, Iran, United States, TikTok, NextGen America, ”