TikTok has released its latest transparency report, revealing that more than 89.13 million videos were removed from its platform in the second half of 2020. The majority of these, at 11.78 million, are from the United States and 83.3% were yanked before they clocked any views.
The videos, which accounted for under 1% of all videos uploaded on TikTok, were removed for violating various conditions detailed in the Chinese tech company’s community guidelines or terms of service. These included safety involving minors, violent and graphic content, illegal activities and regulated goods, and suicide and dangerous activities, according to its latest and fourth transparency report.
Some 92.4% of videos were removed before users reported them and 93.5% within 24 hours of being posted. More than 6.14 million accounts were shuttered, while almost 9.5 million spam accounts were removed along with 5.23 million spam videos posted by these accounts. Some 173.25 million accounts were stopped from being created through automated means.
In addition, more than 3.5 million ads also were rejected for violating the company’s advertising policies and guidelines, said TikTok, which noted that it did not accept paid political ads.
Apart from the US, some 8.22 million videos removed originated in Pakistan while 7.51 million were from Brazil and 4.75 million were from Russia. Indonesia rounded up the top five countries, accounting for 3.86 million videos that were removed worldwide.
Amongst government agencies that submitted requests to restrict or remove content on the video platform, Russia led the pack with 135 such requests, followed by Pakistan at 97, and Australia at 32.
Owned by ByteDance, TikTok also operated a COVID-19 information hub, which it said clocked some 2.63 billion views in the second half of last year. Public service announcements directing users to the World Health Organisation and local public health resources were viewed more than 38.01 billion times.
TikTok added that it removed 51,505 videos for promoting COVID-19 misinformation, 86% of which were yanked out before users reported them and 87% within 24 hours of being uploaded on the platform. Some 71% did not clock any views before they were removed.
In the first half of 2020, the video platform removed more than 104.54 million videos, with India and the US contributing the most of such content at 37.68 million and 9.82 million, respectively.
