Brazil is 3rd in TikTok’s ranking of removed videos in 2nd half of 2020

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The country comes behind the US and Pakistan in the ranking of countries with the most videos removed from the Internet for violating the rules. Between July 1st and December 31st, more than 89 million videos were removed from TikTok globally.

Brazil was the 3rd country with the most videos removed from TikTok in the 2nd half of 2020 for violating the platform’s guidelines or terms of service.

In the period, over 7.5 million videos of users registered as Brazilians were deleted, as shown in the transparency report released by the social network on Wednesday February 24th.

The main reasons for the videos being taken down were “safety of minors” (36% of cases) and “adult nudity and sexual acts” (20.5%).

Between July 1st and December 31st, a total of 89,132,938 videos were removed from TikTok globally, which represents 1% of all videos uploaded to the service. The list of the top 5 countries with the most videos removed:

United States: 11,775,777
Pakistan: 8,215,633
Brazil: 7,506,599
Russia: 4,574,690
India: 3,860,156

Regarding the timing of video removal, the company explained that:

92.4% were taken offline before a user reported them;
83.3%, before they had any views;
93.5%, within 24 hours of being posted.

What are the violations of the deleted videos?

The report also detailed the violations committed in the more than 9.5 million deleted posts worldwide; there was no breakdown by country. The most common reasons are as follows:

Safety of minors: 36% of posts were deleted for breaking this rule, up from 22.3% in the first half of 2020.

Adult nudity and sexual acts: 20.5% of the videos removed violated this policy, up from 30.9% in the first half of 2020.

Illegal activities and regulated goods: 17.9% of removed videos violated this rule, a slight decrease from 19.6% in the first half of 2020.

Violent and explicit content: 8.1% broke this rule compared to 8.7% in the first half of 2020.

Harassment and bullying: 6.6% violated this policy, down from 2.5% in the first half of 2020.

Suicide, self-mutilation, and dangerous acts: 6.2% violated these policies, down 13.4% from the first half of 2020.

Integrity and authenticity: 2.4% were removed for this type of violation, down from 1.2% in the first half of 2020.

Hate speech: 2% of removed videos violated the rule, down from 0.8% in the first half of 2020.

Violent extremism: 0.3% violated this policy, consistent with content removed during the first half of 2020.

TikTok claims that it has strengthened policies on the “safety of minors” to help keep “young people safe.” The reduction in cases of “nudity and sexual acts” was attributed to a change in the moderation process.

“One of the reasons for this reduction is the result of an improvement in our screening systems that separate adult nudity from minor nudity,” the company said.

In early 2021, TikTok announced changes to its privacy settings for users under 18. One such change is that accounts for users between the ages of 13 and 15 are now defaulted to private.

Banned in India

Among the countries with the most videos deleted for violations, Brazil moved from 4th place in the first half of 2020 to the current 3rd place. Between January 1st and June 30th, TikTok removed 5.5 million posts which originated from the country.

With the more than 7.5 million deleted in the 2nd half of the year, there was a 35.9% growth compared to the first 6 months of that year.

However, Brazil’s rise in the ranking is related to the drop in India’s position, which dropped from 1st to 5th place.

In mid-2020, the app was banned by the Indian government, which claimed concern for the country’s security after a conflict with China – TikTok’s country of origin.

Below are further details from TikTok’s transparency report for the 2nd half of 2020:

Ads: in addition to accounts and videos, 3,501,477 ads were rejected for violating advertising policies and guidelines.

Accounts removed: in the second half of 2020, 6,144,040 accounts were removed for violating the app’s guidelines. In addition, another 9,499,881 spam accounts were removed, along with 5,225,800 spam videos posted by these accounts. The company says it has prevented the creation of 173,246,894 accounts by automated means.

Appeals: content creators can appeal the platform’s removals. By making use of this right, 2,927,391 videos were restored following complaints.

Automatic removal of videos: the company said that 8,295,164 videos have been flagged and automatically removed.

“Due to the pandemic, we continue to rely on technology to automatically detect and remove infringing content in some markets, such as Brazil and Pakistan,” the company said in the report.