Bulletins

TikTok removed 104M videos for violating policies

TikTok on Tuesday revealed the scale of its takedown actions, having removed over 104 million videos for violating its policies in the first half of 2020.

Of those takedowns, 30% were removed due to adult nudity or sexual activities and 20% were removed for violating "minor safety" guidelines. Another 19% were removed for promoting "illegal activities and regulated goods."

TikTok said that, due to the pandemic, it relied "more heavily on technology to detect and automatically remove violating content in markets such as India, Brazil and Pakistan."

Also on Tuesday, the company proposed developing a "memorandum of understanding" between social networks to warn each other about graphic, violent and harmful material circulating on their platforms. "We would like to convene a meeting of our respective Trust and Safety teams to further discuss such a mechanism, which we believe will help us all improve safety for our users," TikTok's interim head Vanessa Pappas wrote in a letter to nine social platforms.

Emily Birnbaum

Emily Birnbaum ( @birnbaum_e) is a former tech policy reporter with Protocol. Her coverage focuses on the U.S. government's attempts to regulate one of the most powerful industries in the world, with a focus on antitrust, privacy and politics. Previously, she worked as a tech policy reporter with The Hill after spending several months as a breaking news reporter. She is a Bethesda, Maryland native and proud Kenyon College alumna.

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Bulletins