Popular short video platform owned by Bytedance known as TikTok has explained that it deleted 1.4 million videos uploaded by Nigerian users over the company’s policy violations in the third quarter of 2023.
The company made this disclosure in its recently published Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, which showed that it deleted 73.6 million accounts that were found to be fraudulent or spam during the period under review.
According to the corporation, 348.7 million likes on videos were also deleted.
It added that 7.2 billion fake follow requests and 211.3 million fake followers were deleted.
Read Also: EU Begins Probe Into TikTok, YouTube Over Child Protection
The company found that the deleted likes, followers, and follow requests were the result of ‘automated or inauthentic mechanisms.’
‘As always, we’re looking for outside threats and taking precautions to protect the platform from fraudulent accounts and activity. There are periodic variations in the reported metrics in these regions due to these attackers’ continual probing and attacking of our systems.
‘Despite this, we’re unwavering in our resolve to swiftly detect and delete any accounts, materials, or actions that aim to manipulate users’ popularity on our platform,’ TikTok stated.
In another report, the European Union has announced investigations into the activities of YouTube and TikTok to find out what action the US and Chinese-owned platforms are taking to ensure the safety of minors on their platforms.
The European Commission said it had sent formal requests for information to TikTok and YouTube respectively, the first step in procedures launched under the EU’s new law on digital content.
The EU’s executive arm said it wanted to know what measures the video-sharing platforms have taken to comply with the Digital Services Act (DSA), especially regarding the risks posed to children’s mental and physical health.
The DSA is part of the European Union’s powerful armoury to bring big tech to heel, and demands that digital giants do more to counter the spread of illegal and harmful content as well as disinformation.