TikTok removes over 104-million videos for violating guidelines

22 September 2020 - 11:30 By Rama Venkat
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TikTok started fact-checking programs in the first-half of the year to verify content related to the novel coronavirus and elections.
TikTok started fact-checking programs in the first-half of the year to verify content related to the novel coronavirus and elections.
Image: REUTERS / DADO RUVIC

ByteDance-owned short-video app TikTok said on Tuesday it removed more than 104-million videos from its platform globally in the first half of the year for violating guidelines or terms of service.

"Of those videos, we found and removed 96.4% of videos before a user reported them, and 90.3% were removed before they received any views," TikTok said in a transparency report

TikTok started fact-checking programmes in the first-half of the year to verify content related to the novel coronavirus and elections.

The report comes at a time China's ByteDance has been racing to avoid a crackdown on TikTok after the US Commerce Department said it would block new downloads and updates to the app.

US officials had expressed concern that personal data of as many as 100-million Americans that use the app was being passed on to China's Communist Party government.

The company said on Tuesday it got 1,768 requests for user data, with 290, or 16.4%, of those from US law enforcement agencies. 

Reuters


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