TikTok removes 15m videos from Pakistan

Videos removed due to violations of community guidelines

ISLAMABAD:

With 15,351,388 videos removed, Pakistan ranked second in the world for the largest volume of videos taken down for Community Guidelines violations from 1 April 2022 - 30 June 2022.

According to the latest Community Guidelines Enforcement Report; from Pakistan, 97% of videos were removed within 24 hours of being posted for violating Community Guidelines, 98% were removed before a user reported them, and 97% were removed before having any views.

TikTok is opening state-of-the-art cyber-incident monitoring and investigative response centres in Washington DC, Dublin, and Singapore this year.

The short-form video platform released its latest Community Guidelines Enforcement Report for Q2 2022 (April-June 2022), building on its commitment to a multi-pronged approach to stop misinformation on the platform.

An official statement issued in this regard said that the report reflected the platform’s ongoing commitment to earning trust by being accountable while working to be safe and welcoming.

The latest iteration of the report shows improvements made in countering misinformation and efforts made in the investment in digital literacy education to help get ahead of the problem at scale, it added.

In the second quarter of 2022, 113,809,300 videos were removed globally, which represents about 1% of all videos uploaded to TikTok. Pakistan, with 15,351,388 videos removed for violating Community Guidelines, ranked second in the world for the largest volume of videos taken down in Q2 2022.

In addition to removing accounts for violating Community Guidelines, the platform also removed accounts determined to be spam, along with spam videos posted by those accounts.

It also took proactive measures to prevent spam accounts from being created through automated means. Since last quarter, TikTok identified 33 new misinformation claims, resulting in the removal of 58,000 videos from the platform globally.

In the second quarter of 2022, the total volume of ads removed for violating advertising policies and guidelines decreased. This is due in part to efforts to strengthen account-level detection and enforcement strategies, which have helped improve the ads ecosystem and create better experiences for both users and advertisers.

To further reiterate its commitment to fighting misinformation and ensuring safety, TikTok is introducing a new penalty system where if someone violates one of its Community Guidelines, their account will accrue a strike for this specific policy violation.

The platform will keep a count of the number of strikes accumulated, and if the person continues posting violative content, they will be permanently banned. The number of strikes leading to a permanent ban depends on the severity of the violation, and the number of total violations.

To learn more about content guidelines, tools and policies on TikTok, refer to the Community Guidelines, also available in the Urdu language.