TikTok Releases Fourth Global Transparency Report

TikTok has released its fourth global Transparency Report, covering the period from July 1 to December 31, 2020. The report provides insights into the volume and nature of content removals for violating Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, efforts to combat misinformation related to COVID-19 and elections, and response to law enforcement and intellectual property removal requests.

Key Insights

Globally, 89,132,938 videos were removed in the second half of 2020 for violating Community Guidelines or Terms of Service, which accounts for less than 1% of all videos uploaded on TikTok. In the US, 11,775,777 videos were removed.
The majority of these videos (92.4%) were removed before being reported by users, 83.3% were removed before receiving any views, and 93.5% were removed within 24 hours of being posted.
Additionally, 6,144,040 accounts were removed for violating Community Guidelines, and 9,499,881 spam accounts were removed along with 5,225,800 spam videos.
TikTok also rejected 3,501,477 ads for violating advertising policies.

COVID-19 and Vaccine Misinformation

TikTok continues to work with public health experts to provide accurate information and counter misinformation related to COVID-19. The COVID-19 information hub on TikTok was viewed over 2.6 billion times, and banners directing users to this hub were added to over 3 million videos. Public service announcements on hashtags related to COVID-19 were viewed over 38 billion times. TikTok removed 51,505 videos for promoting COVID-19 misinformation, with the majority being removed before they were reported or viewed.

US 2020 Elections

During the US 2020 elections, TikTok focused on maintaining platform integrity and preventing election misinformation. The elections guide, which provided authoritative information about voting, elections, and results, was visited nearly 18 million times. Public service announcements on election-related hashtags were viewed over 73 billion times, and banners directing viewers to the elections guide were added to nearly 7 million videos. TikTok removed 347,225 videos in the US for election misinformation, disinformation, or manipulated media. Fact-checkers were also employed to verify content accuracy, resulting in over 440,000 videos not being recommended in users' feeds.

Future Plans

TikTok aims to improve its systems to proactively detect and flag misleading content, especially altered versions of known disinformation. The platform will also focus on preventing repeat offenders from circumventing enforcement decisions. Additionally, TikTok recognizes the need for more education on disclosure requirements for paid influencer content.

Legal Requests

TikTok received 546 requests for information in the US, including subpoenas, search warrants, court orders, and emergency disclosure requests. The platform also received 5 requests from US government agencies to restrict or remove content.

This Transparency Report reflects TikTok's commitment to transparency and progress in content moderation practices. The platform values feedback from its community and will continue to share progress as it strives to earn their trust.