STATION F welcomes Tiktok with new online safety program

Every year at STATION F, we see founders take on some pretty big challenges. AI, climate, healthcare, fintech, cybersecurity, you name it. But there's one area we've seen surprisingly few startups working on: online safety.

And yet, it's becoming harder to ignore. AI-generated content, deepfakes, cyberbullying, scams and new digital behaviors are creating new challenges all the time. Companies like Bodyguard or ID Protect have already shown what startups can bring to the table. Now, we'd love to see many more founders take them on. That's why we're launching our new program dedicated to online safety, together with TikTok.

The next generation of online safety won't come from one company alone. It'll come from founders building new technologies, researchers exploring new ideas and experts working together on challenges that keep evolving.

The TikTok Trustworthy Digital Experiences Program is open to startups from around the world building technologies that make digital experiences safer, more trusted and more empowering. And we're looking at online safety from many different angles from AI and identity to privacy, digital wellbeing and emerging online risks.

Here are the seven innovation themes:

• Identity, Trust & Authenticity

• AI for Trustworthy Experiences

• Child & Family Experiences

• Digital Wellbeing & User Empowerment

• Healthy Communities

• Emerging Risks

• Safety Infrastructure

We'll select 10 startups for the first cohort, kicking off at STATION F in October.

Selected companies will work closely with TikTok experts, get feedback on their ideas, exchange with researchers, and connect with founders and industry leaders working in online safety. The goal is to help these startups grow, but also to give more people working on online safety a chance to meet, trade ideas and learn from each other. The challenges are moving fast, and the best solutions can come from unexpected places.

TikTok has also been part of the STATION F community for several years, including through our Fighters Program, which supports entrepreneurs who've faced real barriers getting started. We see this new program as a continuation of that partnership, and of TikTok's broader work on online safety.

This program joins the many new ones launched at STATION F this year, including EM Lyon, Sanofi, Doctolib x Roche x Hôtel-Dieu, Cisco, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, AlUla x Galeries Lafayette, Terminal 11 - as well as STATION F’s newest AI program, F/AI.

We're excited to see who applies, what they're building, and hopefully find a few startups working on problems we haven't even thought about yet. Applications are open until October 7 - https://stationfteam.notion.site/tiktok-startup-program-station-f