July 21, 2022 – TikTok removed nearly 12.5 million videos from Pakistan for violating the platform’s “robust set of community guidelines that are designed to foster an experience that prioritises safety, inclusion, and authenticity” in the first quarter of 2022.
“We strive to foster a fun and inclusive environment where people can create, find community, and be entertained,” the popular video-sharing platform states in its latest Community Guidelines Enforcement Report. “To maintain that environment, we take action upon content and accounts that violate our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service and regularly publish information about these actions to hold ourselves accountable to our community.”
The report states that TikTok removed over 102 million videos globally, which makes up one percent of the total content uploaded to the platform.
As for Pakistan, “a proactive removal rate of 98.5 percent was used by TikTok to remove 12,490,309 videos”. Pakistan had a removal rate of 97.3 percent before 24 hours and 96.5 percent before the removed videos gathered any views.
Pakistan ranks second in the world for the largest volume of videos removed in the first quarter of 2022 behind the United States, which had the most (14,044,224) videos removed by TikTok.
The platform also highlighted the measures it has taken in Ukraine following the Russian invasion. “Our safety team focused on the Ukraine war removed 41,191 videos, 87% of which violated our policies against harmful misinformation. The vast majority (78%) were identified proactively.”
TikTok is among the most controversial applications in Pakistan and has been banned four times over “immoral and indecent content”. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) first banned TikTok in October 2020. It was unblocked 10 days later after its parent company, ByteDance, agreed to remove “objectionable” content from the Pakistani market.
The fourth ban on TikTok was imposed in July 2021. It was lifted in November the same year. The frequent bans on the video-focused platform have drawn sharp criticism from content creators and free speech defenders and have affected several small businesses in the country as well.
