TikTok removed a staggering 104,543,719 videos globally in the first six months of 2020, according to the video-sharing app’s H1 transparency report.
Social media companies such as Facebook have taken to publishing transparency reports in recent years to demonstrate how their community guidelines get put into action.
In a blogpost, TikTok director of public policy, Australia and New Zealand Brent Thomas and head of trust & safety APAC Arjun Narayan Bettadapur Manjunath said the company remains committed to keeping its users safe.
“Hundreds of millions of people around the world come to TikTok for entertainment, self-expression, and connection. We have no higher priority than promoting a safe app experience that fosters joy and belonging among our growing global community,” they said.
“We know how vital it is to build trust by being transparent with our community. It’s why we regularly release these reports to hold ourselves accountable to our community and provide insight into the actions we take to help keep TikTok safe for everyone.”
The transparency report also covers some of TikTok’s recent policy changes, which included new guidelines on misleading content and disinformation.
“We introduced fact-checking programs in nine markets, including the US, Canada, UK, Australia, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, India to help us verify misleading content about the novel coronavirus, elections, and more,” the blog said.
“We are working to bring this program to additional markets.”
The report also shows the volume of legal requests on TikTok has also increased in recent months.
In the first half of 2020, the app received 1,768 requests for user information from 42 countries/markets.
It also received 135 requests from government agencies to restrict or remove content from 15 countries/markets and evaluated 10,625 copyrighted content take-down notices globally.
