From the very beginning, the shortness of the video has been one of the main distinguishing features of the TikTok service, whose users are deprived of the opportunity to create media content longer than a minute. This will change soon. The company intends to increase the maximum duration of videos on the platform from one to three minutes.
A test project to create three-minute videos started last year. Now the TikTok network has officially announced the ability to record longer video formats. For content creators, this will provide expanded opportunities for self-expression, for example, will allow a more complete demonstration of the process of cooking, assembling models or caring for their beloved animals. The innovation will become available to all users in the coming weeks.
This is just one of several important updates to TikTok this year. In April, the company come up with a solution that automatically generates subtitles for videos; and most recently introduced Jump technology, which allows third-party services and links to resources to be integrated into videos.
We do not yet know whether the new videos will help increase the engagement of the platform’s users. TikTok hopes this will provide a new opportunity for content creators to “engage the community with their creative expression”.
TikTok refused the services of Chinese moderators
Representatives of TikTok recently announced the refusal to use moderators from China to view videos posted by users. The company seeks to demonstrate independence from the Chinese political agenda.
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Back in March 2020, the popular microvideo publishing service promised to move away from hiring Chinese employees. Although ByteDance’s parent company is located in China, TikTok strives to retain its audience, not be subject to sanctions, and by all means demonstrates its lack of ties with local authorities. The company also denies transferring data to local government agencies.
TikTok promised to refuse moderation from the PRC after journalists got hold of an instruction for moderators calling for discrimination of posts of old people, unattractive or have a physical handicap. In addition, censorship of political speech was in talks. The scandal that broke out forced TikTok to carry out reforms. According to company spokesman Cormac Keenan, there are no TikTok moderators in China. Now more than 100,000 people from all over the world working in moderation – with the exception of China.
His words are partially corroborated by a publication in The Wall Street Journal, which reported back in March that many Chinese moderators who viewed Western posts would be transferred to other positions. Among other things, it was about “expats” living in the PRC who moderate content in their native languages. In the country itself, TikTok is not working, but its twin Douyin works, so the issue of moderators for China does not bother anyone.
Now, according to TikTok, control is in place in the context of local cultural realities; and is a “constantly evolving process” taking into account the difference in requirements in individual regions. According to reports, TikTok employees have to moderate 1,000 videos a day; using an artificial intelligence system that marks keyframes of the most “problematic” videos.
