TikTok joins social media trend with new ‘Footnotes’ feature for trustworthy content: All you need to know

TikTok has begun testing a new feature calledFootnotes in the United States — a move that echoes similar tools likeCommunity Notes used by X and more recently by Meta. The feature, announced on Wednesday, aims to bring more context and clarity to videos shared on the platform by allowing users to contribute relevant background information or explanations.

The idea is simple: help viewers better understand the content they’re consuming, especially when it comes to reliability and accuracy. According to TikTok’s head of operations and trust and safety, Adam Presser,Footnotes is part of a broader push to promote trustworthy content on the app. “It will add to our suite of measures that help people understand the reliability of content and access authoritative sources,” Presser explained in a blog post. That suite already includes things like content labels, search banners and fact-checking initiatives.

Interestingly, the addition ofFootnotes also signals TikTok’s growing interest in crowdsourced moderation tools, an approach that’s been gaining traction across major social media platforms. Earlier this year, Meta began trialling its ownCommunity Notes in the US, powered by technology developed by Elon Musk’s X.

To recall, this update lands at a sensitive time for TikTok. Despite being used by nearly half of all Americans, the app’s future in the US is still uncertain. A law passed in 2024 requires its China-based parent company, ByteDance, to sell the app by 19 January. The deadline, however, has been extended again, with former President Donald Trump recently confirming that negotiations for a deal are still ongoing.

As forFootnotes, TikTok said that eligible users in the US can now apply to become contributors. To qualify, users must be over 18, have had their account for more than six months, and have a clean recent history with no community guidelines violations.

(With inputs from Reuters)