TikTok is joining the user notes trend

When it comes to Community Notes, TikTok is taking a page from other social giants and showing up fashionably late to the party.

TikTok is testing a new feature called Footnotes, which allows users to add additional context to other people's videos with the aim of helping viewers better understand the reliability of content (similar to existing features on X, Facebook, and Insta).

Like a scholarly citation, but trendy

After a user submits a Footnote for consideration, the app’s algorithm uses a bridge-based ranking system to decide whether or not the Footnote should be ranked as “helpful” or not.

• For a Footnote to be considered “helpful,” the note's context has to be widely agreed upon, with extra weight given to “people who usually have different opinions.”
• Once a helpful Footnote is published on a video, the broader TikTok community can also vote on the note's helpfulness for others to see.

Not just anyone can chime in. US users can apply to be a Footnotes contributor if they’re 18+ years old, have been on the platform for 6+ months, and have no recent history of violating TikTok’s community guidelines.

Big picture: TikTok’s Footnotes comes as the app is facing an uncertain future in the US. As it currently stands, ByteDance must divest from TikTok’s US operations by June 19 to avoid a nationwide ban—though similar deadlines have been postponed twice already by President Trump, who says a potential sale to US owners is still on the table.