TikTok will be mercifully free of political ads

TikTok, that oasis of hilarious teens and terrifically absurd videos, will be one of our only political ad-free havens during the 2020 campaign.

In a post to the company's newsroom website, Blake Chandlee, Vice President of Global Business Solutions, said that TikTok will not allow political ads of any kind on the platform.

Specifically, the app will not run "paid ads that promote or oppose a candidate, current leader, political party or group, or issue at the federal, state, or local level – including election-related ads, advocacy ads, or issue ads."

A blessing in light of the political turmoil that has engulfed every other social media platform, Chandlee writes that, "we're intent on always staying true to why users uniquely love the TikTok platform itself: for the app's light-hearted and irreverent feeling that makes it such a fun place to spend time."

That's not to say politics will be completely absent from the platform; Chandlee's post is related to paid ads, not all content. A TikTok spokesperson confirmed political candidates are still allowed to have their own profiles where they can post content.

Not that many of the 2020 candidates have made their way to the platform yet. A cursory search of the 2020 candidates, including President Donald Trump, only turned up an official account for Julián Castro.

But even if more candidates make the leap to TikTok, the platform presumably won't be as willing as others to let them push the boundaries of its terms of service like, say, if an elected official were to post incredibly racist content.

The TikTok spokesperson told Mashable, "Our terms of service apply to all users on the platform."

TikTok hasn't been completely controversy-free when it comes to politics. The platform was recently criticized for blocking content critical of China after searches for content related to the recent Hong Kong protests didn't turn up much.

The allegations were confirmed by ByteDance, the Beijing-based tech giant that owns TikTok, in response to documents published by The Guardian. But ByteDance said the documents published by The Guardian were outdated and new guidelines have been in effect for months, well before the Hong Kong protests got underway.

Critics have kept a side-eye going at the platform with regards to the Hong Kong protests. But the promise to keep political ads from seeping into its platform, and applying the same standards to all users, is promising as another heated election season builds to a boil.