TikTok purges 37.6mn troublesome videos from India

New Delhi: Chinese short video-making app TikTok purged more than 104.5 million videos from its platform in the first half of this year (the pre-ban period) for violating its community guidelines and majority were from India at 37.68 million.

At second place was the US, where the app has just averted the ban with Oracle-Walmart coming to its rescue, with 9.82 million videos that were removed in H12020, according to TikTok's latest transparency report.

The total number accounts for less than 1 per cent of all the videos uploaded on TikTok. Before the India ban, TikTok had nearly 200 million users in the country, nearly the double from its US market.

Apart from India and the US, the highest numbers of videos were removed from Pakistan, Brazil and the UK at 6.45 million, 5.53 million, and 2.95 million, respectively. Some 96.4 per cent of the videos were identified and removed before users reported them, while 90.3 per cent were removed before they clocked any views, reports ZDNet.

The majority, at 30.9% were removed for containing nudity and sexual activities, while 22.3% were taken out for violating minor safety and 19.6% were removed for containing illegal activities and regulated goods. Apart from India and the US, the highest numbers of videos also were removed from Pakistan, Brazil, and the UK at 6.45 million, 5.53 million, and 2.95 million, respectively.

TikTok said it also received legal requests from governments and law enforcement agencies as well as IP (intellectual property) rights holders to restrict or remove certain content. In a separate statement, TikTok said its interim head Vanessa Pappas has sent a letter to the heads of nine social and content platforms, proposing a Memorandum of Understanding aimed at encouraging companies to warn one another of violent, graphic content on their own platforms.