TikTok says it removed nearly 90 million videos that broke its rules in the last six months of 2020 as part of a crackdown on harmful content on the platform.
The video-sharing app said it took down more than six million accounts for violating its guidelines, as well as nearly 9.5 million spam accounts.
The figures, published in the social media site’s latest transparency report, also revealed the app’s information hub dedicated to official information about Covid-19 received more than 2.6 billion views globally in the second half of last year.
TikTok said public service announcements attached to hashtags around the pandemic and which linked to World Health Organisation (WHO) and other public health resources were viewed more than 38 billion times.
Social media platforms have been under pressure to do more to combat the spread of misinformation during the pandemic after a number of conspiracy theories about the virus gained traction online, including on TikTok.
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TikTok said the report highlighted how it had ramped up its own efforts to stop the spread of misinformation and other harmful content.
It said the 90 million videos taken down represented less than one per cent of all videos uploaded to the platform during the reporting period, and more than 90 per cent of them had been taken down proactively by the company.
The company’s report said 83 per cent were removed before they were ever viewed by others and 93 per cent within 24 hours of being posted.
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The transparency report also revealed that more than 170 million spam accounts were blocked from even being created, and three million videos were reinstated to the platform following user appeals.
Cormac Keenan, TikTok’s head of trust and safety, said: “We believe that trust forms the foundation of our community.
“This is our most comprehensive report to date, and we’re proud of the progress we’ve made to increase transparency into our content and moderation practices.
“We’ll continue to listen to feedback from our community and share our progress as we work to ensure TikTok is a safe and positive space for creative expression.”
