TikTok announced that it’s introducing new caption and translation tools to make its content more accessible for users. The new updates will support an initial batch of languages, including English, Portuguese, German, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish and Turkish.
The company is launching auto-generated captions for users. Viewers, in addition to creators, now have the option to turn on closed captions for videos. TikTok is also introducing translations for captions and video descriptions, which will give users the option to enjoy videos beyond the original language.
The company is launching translation for text stickers. TikTok says it’s at the early stages of rolling out these tools, which are available on select videos at this time.
The launch of the new tools comes as TikTok rolled out auto captions last year in order to give creators the ability to generate subtitles to make their content more accessible for global viewers. The new features announced today will join several other accessibility features TikTok has launched, such as creator warnings when they produce videos that could trigger photosensitive epilepsy and a photosensitivity feature that allows users to skip photosensitive content. The app also offers a text-to-speech feature and a feature to replace animated thumbnails with static images.
TikTok National Security Concerns Resurface: What You Need to Know. Some US officials are concerned TikTok threatens national security because parent company ByteDance could share data about Americans collected through the app with the Chinese government. That data, they worry, could be weaponized against Americans. In theory, China could use the data to build profiles and spy on individual users, monitor their activity and target them directly. Another worry is the data could be used in aggregate to attack the US, such as using data to craft misinformation campaigns that could be used to destabilize the US government.
