In a statement, TikTok said it would take steps to flag videos with unsubstantiated platform in an effort to reduce sharing, in an initiative designed and tested by behavioural science firm Irrational Labs.

The video-sharing platform already removes misinformation when identified and partners with fact checkers at PolitiFact, Lead Stories, and SciVerify to assess content accuracy.

The new measures will add a banner to TikTok videos where content has been flagged as misleading and the content has been reviewed but cannot be conclusively validated as misinformation.

The video’s creator will be notified that their content has been flagged as unsubstantiated, and any viewers attempting to share the video will receive a prompt asking them if they wish to ‘share anyway’ or ‘cancel’.

The feature has been launched in the US and Canada, and will be rolled out to the rest of the world in the next few weeks. A series of videos on media literacy, called ‘Be Informed’, have also been launched by TikTok in partnership with the National Association of Media Literacy Education.

TikTok said in a statement: “We love that our community’s creativity encourages people to share TikTok videos with others who might enjoy them – both within our platform and beyond – but we’ve designed this feature to help our users be mindful about what they share.

“In fact, when we tested this approach we saw viewers decrease the rate at which they shared videos by 24%, while likes on such unsubstantiated content also decreased by 7%.”