A transparency report from TikTok was released today, and it indicates that 113 million videos have been removed in just three months, as reported by The Verge.
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BERLIN, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 21: A bicyclist rides past an advertisement for social media company TikTok on September 21, 2020 in Berlin, Germany. U.S. President Donald Trump has given preliminary approval for Oracle, Walmart and other investors to take over TikTok and create a new U.S.-based company called TikTok Global.
These videos represent only 1 percent of the total videos that were uploaded between April and June this year. TikTok stated on their official website that the reason for the removal of these videos is because of policy violations regarding minor safety, illegal activities and regulated goods, adult nudity, and sexual activities.
Despite being only 1%, these figures are much higher than the removed videos last quarter, as the videos garnered only 48 million.
As per TikTok, 96% of the videos were removed by the platform even before someone reported it as it uses automated tools and human review to sift through these contents that may violate the platform's guidelines.
Harmful Misinformation
"Leveraging machine learning has been especially impactful when it comes to our countering harmful misinformation," the report stated. The company also stated the expansion of its capacity to "iterate rapidly" on its systems as misinformation is very rampant nowadays, especially during world crises such as the Ukraine war.
During the Russia-Ukraine invasion earlier this year, Tiktok did not control well the roll-out of misinformation on the platform, as Poynter reported. By using its audio features, different videos circulated with unrelated and false videos that panicked the people on the internet.
Videos like these continuously spread on the platform during those times, even though the platform has community guidelines. Institute for Strategic Dialogue Analyst Ciaran O'Connor stated that TikTok sounds are a big part of how users are misinformed in general. Aside from being the "backbone" of the application, making false contents are very easy on the platform.
Also Read: Report Finds TikTok to Show 20% Misinformation Upon Search: No Fact Check?
U.S. Elections Preparations
TikTok will also ban all political fundraising content on the platform as they prepare for the upcoming midterm elections in the United States. Politicians, political parties, and the government will be required first to apply for verification.
This was done as it will be a part of TikTok's effort to shut election misinformation.
As per TikTok Head of U.S. Safety Eric Han, "TikTok does not allow paid political ads, and that includes content influencers are paid to create,". However, some were still slipping for political advertising with the help of influencers despite being banned.
Adding to this that they stated that the company promotes protecting its community from harm and will be ready to face any challenges in the future.
Related Article: UK Warns TikTok with a $29 Million Fine for Failing to Protect Child Privacy
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Written by Inno Flores
