TikTok removes council's account fearing it a fake

A town council's new TikTok account was removed because the social media platform thought it was a potential fake.

Wellington Town Council had agreed in June to trial an account on the popular video site, sharing sparse content that included a clip of the mayor leading a summer fayre parade.

But the world barely had the chance to watch. On Tuesday, the council's Events and Communication Committee heard the bid to engage with the younger population had hit a snag - the account was gone, with "no reason" given for the takedown.

By Thursday, however, it emerged that TikTok did indeed have a reason, finding the account to be the potential work of imposters due to an accreditation issue.

Under TikTok's rules, all government, political party or politcian accounts (GPPPAs) must be correctly labelled as such, which, TikTok said, the council's was not.

TikTok said it had since reactivated the account.

The GPPPA accreditation is now displayed.

The account has two videos, both dated June, and with zero views between them as of 17:00 BST on Thursday.

At Tuesday's meeting, in which councillors learned of the issue, they were informed the authority had written to TikTok in a bid to resolve the mattr.

Councillor Paul Davis said during the proceedings that he hoped the step was overturned.

Committee chairwoman Emma Holding said she wanted to not only understand why the account was banned but to avoid the same thing happening again in the future.

Councillors also suggested that Mayor Reg Snell should "write a letter" to the multinational social media giant to ask it to reconsider.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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