TikTok removed over 176m videos for ‘breaching’ community guidelines

TikTok has taken action against over 18.59 million videos uploaded by accounts operating from Pakistan for ‘breaching’ its community guidelines in the fourth quarter, the platform said.

As per data issued by TikTok, the platform took action against 18,596,077 videos in Pakistan alone, for what it called a breach of its community guidelines in the fourth quarter of 2023.

“Moreover, TikTok aggressively pursued spam accounts and related content, implementing robust measures to prevent the proliferation of automated spam accounts,” the platform said.

It added that during the October-December period of 2023, TikTok’s proactive measures led to the removal of 176,461,963 videos worldwide, representing about 1 percent of all videos uploaded on the platform.

A substantial portion of these, 128,300,584 videos, were identified and removed through automated detection technologies, while 8,038,106 videos were reinstated upon further review.

Approximately 95.3 percent of videos that violated the guidelines were removed within 24 hours of posting, and the proactive removal rate for the quarter stood impressively at 99.5% globally. In a global effort to safeguard younger users, TikTok also deleted 19,848,855 accounts suspected of belonging to individuals under the age of 13.

“Leveraging advanced technology and human oversight, TikTok efficiently identifies, reviews, and addresses content that contravenes its guidelines. The periodic publication of the Community Guidelines Enforcement Report offers insights into the scale and nature of content and account actions, underscoring TikTok’s commitment to full transparency,” the platform’s statement read۔

Earlier in October 2023, TikTok released its Community Guidelines Enforcement Report for the second quarter of 2023 (April-June 2023).

During Q2 2023, a total of 106,476,032 videos were removed globally, which accounts for approximately 0.7% of all videos uploaded to TikTok. Out of these, 66,440,775 videos were removed through automated systems, while 6,750,002 videos were restored after review.

In Pakistan, 14,141,581 videos were removed for violating Community Guidelines in Q2 2023. Alongside addressing Community Guidelines violations, TikTok proactively targeted spam accounts and associated content, taking preventive measures to curb the creation of automated spam accounts.