TikTok has been sending inaccurate and misleading news-style alerts to users’ phones, including a false claim about Taylor Swift and a weeks-old disaster warning, intensifying fears about the spread of misinformation on the popular video-sharing platform. 

Among alerts seen by the Financial Times was a warning about a tsunami in Japan, labelled “BREAKING”, that was posted in late January, three weeks after an earthquake had struck. Another falsely stated that “Taylor Swift Cancelled All Tour Dates in What She Called ‘Racist Florida’”, while a push notification highlighted a five-year ban for a major-league baseball player.

The notifications, which sometimes contain summaries from user-generated posts, pop up on screen in the style of a news alert. Researchers say that format, adopted widely to boost engagement through personalised video recommendations, may make users less critical of the veracity of the content and open them up to misinformation.