TikTok removes nearly 400,000 videos in Kenya due to sexual content

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TikTok is deleting more videos in Kenya for violating its community guidelines as the company tries to avoid government scrutiny over content moderation for sexually explicit content.

TikTok removed 360,000 videos in Kenya in the three months to June, according to its newly released Q2 app report. In Kenya, 296,000 videos were removed in all of 2023. Videos removed during the quarter accounted for 0.3% of videos uploaded in Kenya during the quarter.

The platform was: forced The Kenyan government will share quarterly compliance reports in April because I came across a petition He threatened to see it banned in the country.

proliferation The rise of sexual content on TikTok, particularly in Kenya, has increased pressure for tighter enforcement by regulators concerned about Only Fans-style content. Videos containing ethnic incitement and violence are often taken down for violating the rules.

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TikTok’s enforcement report also revealed that the platform banned nearly 60,000 accounts in Kenya that violated various community guidelines, most of which were suspected to belong to users under the age of 13. It was stated that 99.1% of the videos were removed in April, May and June. Those in Kenya were removed without notifying users.

The platform has benefited from its investments in technology that enables greater automatic detection of harmful content, which it uses in conjunction with human moderators. The Bytedance-owned platform said it removed more than 178 million videos worldwide in June alone, 144 million of which were removed through automation.

TikTok in August establish an advisory council With experts from across the continent to inform its policies and improve content moderation.

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The number of videos removed last year was revealed by Fortune Sibanda, the platform’s Head of Government Relations, when she appeared before the Kenyan Parliament earlier this year at the height of the petition to ban TikTok in Kenya. The unsuccessful petition sought to shut down the platform due to the spread of explicit, harmful and violent content in the country.

But the country’s technology ministry told Parliament that it preferred to improve the platform’s regulations rather than ban it.