TikTok removed 4 million harmful videos in September
Posted: Tue Apr 22, 2025 5:03 am
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Social media platform TikTok, owned by Chinese group ByteDance, announced that it had voluntarily removed four million videos deemed illegal or harmful in the EU in September, according to a report published Wednesday.
The platform claims to have a staff of 6,125 people dedicated to content moderation in the European Union alone, out of a total of 40,000 people responsible for protecting its users worldwide.
"The vast majority of actions taken by TikTok against illegal or harmful content are proactive" because they violate the a complete list of unit mobile number database network's rules, the company said in a report on its moderation activity across the 27 EU countries. These removals far outnumber those related to user reports, it stressed.
With the aim of increased transparency, the publication of such a report every six months is an obligation imposed by the new European legislation on digital services (DSA), which came into force at the end of August for 19 very large platforms, including TikTok.
The European Commission has also opened investigations over the past two weeks into X (formerly Twitter), Meta (Facebook, Instagram), and TikTok, demanding details of the measures they are implementing against the spread of "false information" and "illegal content" following Hamas' attacks on Israel.
In its first transparency report published Wednesday, TikTok, which claims 134 million monthly active users across Europe, said it was "proud" of its efforts while acknowledging that it "still has work to do."
The social network explains that it has introduced a tool allowing its European user community to report illegal content, in accordance with DSA requirements. TikTok reports receiving 35,000 reports relating to 24,000 videos in the first month. Action was taken against 16% of these videos, deemed illegal or contrary to internal rules.
The median time between reporting and action was 13 hours, the group explained, highlighting the difficult legal analysis it had to conduct to be fair and consistent, while taking into account freedom of expression.
People involved in content moderation also rely on automated tools. A third of them work in English.
The service also employs 869 German speakers and 687 French speakers. The team includes speakers of the 24 official EU languages, as well as people who can monitor posts in Turkish and Arabic, two frequently used languages.
Social media platform TikTok, owned by Chinese group ByteDance, announced that it had voluntarily removed four million videos deemed illegal or harmful in the EU in September, according to a report published Wednesday.
The platform claims to have a staff of 6,125 people dedicated to content moderation in the European Union alone, out of a total of 40,000 people responsible for protecting its users worldwide.
"The vast majority of actions taken by TikTok against illegal or harmful content are proactive" because they violate the a complete list of unit mobile number database network's rules, the company said in a report on its moderation activity across the 27 EU countries. These removals far outnumber those related to user reports, it stressed.
With the aim of increased transparency, the publication of such a report every six months is an obligation imposed by the new European legislation on digital services (DSA), which came into force at the end of August for 19 very large platforms, including TikTok.
The European Commission has also opened investigations over the past two weeks into X (formerly Twitter), Meta (Facebook, Instagram), and TikTok, demanding details of the measures they are implementing against the spread of "false information" and "illegal content" following Hamas' attacks on Israel.
In its first transparency report published Wednesday, TikTok, which claims 134 million monthly active users across Europe, said it was "proud" of its efforts while acknowledging that it "still has work to do."
The social network explains that it has introduced a tool allowing its European user community to report illegal content, in accordance with DSA requirements. TikTok reports receiving 35,000 reports relating to 24,000 videos in the first month. Action was taken against 16% of these videos, deemed illegal or contrary to internal rules.
The median time between reporting and action was 13 hours, the group explained, highlighting the difficult legal analysis it had to conduct to be fair and consistent, while taking into account freedom of expression.
People involved in content moderation also rely on automated tools. A third of them work in English.
The service also employs 869 German speakers and 687 French speakers. The team includes speakers of the 24 official EU languages, as well as people who can monitor posts in Turkish and Arabic, two frequently used languages.