TikTok bans thousands of SA accounts for violating rules

Short video platform TikTok has removed over 614,000 videos from South African based accounts for violating several community rules, including those governing integrity, advertising, privacy and security.

This was revealed in TikTok’s Q2 2024 Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, showcasing the platform’s growing efforts to ensure user safety and well-being in South Africa.

The quarterly report provides transparency on the content and accounts removed during the reporting period for violating the platform’s community guidelines.

Videos removed

According to the TikTok report, a total of  614,406 videos were removed, which accounts for only 0.6% of the total videos uploaded in South Africa in the latest reporting period.

Key findings of the report show that 98.7% of these videos were proactively removed before any user reports, with 88.4% taken down within 24 hours.

The report also revealed that a total of 143,998 accounts were banned for violating TikTok’s Community Guidelines, with 137,663 accounts being removed because the platform suspected they belonged to people under the age of 13.

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Content moderation

TikTok said it has made significant strides in content moderation.

“In June 2024, over 178 million videos were removed worldwide, with 144 million of these taken down through automation. These technical advancements reduce the volume of content that moderators review, helping minimise human exposure to violative content.

“With a proactive detection rate now at 98.2% globally, TikTok is more efficient than ever at addressing harmful content before users encounter it,” TikTok said.

Automated technology

As TikTok continues to invest in cutting-edge moderation technologies, its commitment to transparency and platform safety remains at the forefront it said, ensuring a secure environment for its diverse user base across South Africa and globally.

“More than 40,000 trust and safety professionals work alongside innovative technology to maintain and enforce our robust Community Guidelines, Terms of Service and Advertising Policies, which apply to all content on our platform.

“Automated technology on our platform now removes 80% of violative videos, up from 62% a year ago. At the same time, our proactive detection rate has continued to improve; this quarter saw our highest result so far at 98.2% of videos removed before a user report,” said TikTok.

Influence networks

TikTok said in the second quarter of 2024 it also disrupted 14 covert influence networks, comprising 2,240 accounts with a total of 1,702,277 followers.

In addition to these new network disruptions, TikTok removed 9,270 accounts associated with previously disrupted networks attempting to re-establish their presence within this reporting period.

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