TikTok removes videos in Pakistan; and cancels 7 million underage users

More than six million videos were removed from TikTok in Pakistan in three months, the app said on Wednesday, as it battles an on-off ban in the deeply conservative country.

Wildly popular among Pakistani youth, the Chinese-owned app has been shut down by authorities twice over "indecent" content, most recently in March after which the company pledged to moderate uploads.

"In the Pakistani market, TikTok removed 6,495,992 videos making it the second market to get the most videos removed after the USA, where 8,540,088 videos were removed," TikTok Pakistan's latest transparency report said on Wednesday, covering January to March.

Around 15 per cent of the removed videos were "adult nudity and sexual activities".

A spokesman said the Pakistan-made videos were banned as a result of both user and government requests.

In the Muslim nation, posting videos in Western clothes that reveal too much skin is taboo, and is often met with abuse.

Earlier this month, small anti-TikTok rallies were held against what protesters called the spreading of homosexual content.

"One can speculate that this is a result of government pressure or a reflection of the large volume of content produced in Pakistan given the popularity of the platform, or both," said digital rights activist Nighat Dad.

"Social media platforms are more willing to remove and block content in Pakistan to evade complete bans," she said.

It comes as the app faces a fresh court battle in the port city of Karachi, where a judge has asked telecommunication authorities to suspend it for spreading "immoral content". The platform is still working in Pakistan, however.

Freedom of speech advocates have long criticised the creeping government censorship and control of Pakistan's internet and media.

Dating apps have been blocked and last year Pakistani regulators had asked YouTube to immediately block all videos they considered "objectionable" from being accessed in the country, a demand criticised by rights campaigners.

TikTok removes 7 million underage users
Washington (AFP) June 30, 2021 - TikTok removed more than seven million accounts of users suspected of being under age 13 in the first three months of 2021, the popular social media operator said Wednesday in a transparency report.

The Chinese-owned app which is wildly popular with young smartphone users, also said it took down nearly 62 million videos in the first quarter for violating community standards -- including for "hateful" content, nudity, harassment or safety for minors.

In its first disclosure on underage users, TikTok said it uses a variety of methods, including a safety moderation team, that monitors accounts where users are suspected of being untruthful about their age.

Those age 12 or younger are directed to "TikTok for Younger Users" in the United States.

TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, is believed to have some one billion users worldwide including more than 100 million in the United States.

Last month, the Biden adminstration reversed orders from former president Donald Trump which would have banned TikTok or forced its sale to American investors.

The report comes with social media operators facing increased pressure to remove abusive and hateful content while remaining open to a variety of viewpoints.

TikTok's transparency report said that in addition to the suspected underage users, accounts from nearly four million users additional were deleted for violating the app's guidelines.

"Our TikTok team of policy, operations, safety, and security experts work together to develop equitable policies that can be consistently enforced," the report said.

"Our policies do take into account a diverse range of feedback we gather from external experts in digital safety and human rights, and we are mindful of the local cultures in the markets we serve."

TikTok said its automated systems detect and remove the vast majority of offending content: "We identified and removed 91.3 percent before a user reported them, 81.8 percent before they received any views, and 93.1 percent within 24 hours of being posted."

Overall, fewer than one percent of the videos uploaded on TikTok were taken down for violations.

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