TikTok removes over six million videos from Pakistan for violating community guidelines

TikTok logo is displayed outside its office in Culver City, California on Aug. 27, 2020. (AFP/FILE)

• Pakistan is now ranked fourth in the world for the largest volume of videos taken down
• 73.9 percent of content promoting harassment and bullying was proactively removed

KARACHI: Video platform TikTok said this week it had removed 6,019,754 videos for violating community guidelines in Pakistan in the third quarter (Q3) of 2021.
The company on Monday released its Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, which details the volume and nature of violative content and accounts removed from the platform in Q3 of 2021. The report provides insight into content removed for violating the Community Guidelines, reinforcing the platform’s public-accountability, to the community, policymakers, and NGOs.
TikTok has been banned more than five times in Pakistan. The most recent ban by the country’s telecom regulator, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), was imposed in July 2021, and lifted in November 2021 “after assurances by the platform to control ‘immoral and unlawful’ content.”
“To protect the safety of the community and the integrity of the platform, 91,445,802 videos were removed globally, between 1st July and 30th September 2021, comprising around 1 percent of all videos uploaded,” the platform said in a statement. “Nearly 95 percent of those videos were removed before a user reported it, while 88 percent before the video received any views and 93 percent were removed within 24 hours of being posted.”
With 6,019,754 videos removed, Pakistan is now ranked fourth in the world for the largest volume of videos taken down, TikTok said.
“In addition, 73.9 percent of content promoting harassment and bullying were proactively removed, while 72.4 percent of hateful-behavior videos were also removed before anyone reported them,” the statement added.
A senior official at TikTok told Arab News last year after being repeatedly banned in Pakistan over content that local authorities say is “immoral,” TikTok had increased the number of Pakistani content moderators by over 300 percent and tripled its investment in the South Asian country.
“Understanding the gravity of the local laws, ethics and values, TikTok has invested heavily in its team of local-language content moderators, leading to a 300 percent-plus growth in local-language moderation headcount,” Jiagen Eep, Trust and Safety, Singapore Hub Lead for TikTok, told Arab News via email.
“This large content moderation team works round the clock, monitoring content posted by our users in Pakistan,” he said. “Of course, our moderators work within the purview of prevailing labor laws and additional offline time is provided for wellbeing and training.”
The official said keeping in mind the social, religious and cultural context of Pakistan, TikTok had “more than tripled our investment in the last twelve months in our dedicated local-language moderation team for Pakistan” that ensured that content on the platform was in line with community guidelines and prompt action was taken in case of violations.
“The content moderation process has been made even more efficient with the hiring of local-language moderators who understand multiple Pakistani languages, culture and social norms and are able to make quick assessments in light of our community guidelines,” he said.