File photo. Joel Saget—AFP
Mobile video platform says it prioritizes a safe and positive in-app environment
Chinese mobile app TikTok on Wednesday issued a statement responding to a “final warning” from the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), saying that “maintaining a safe and positive in-app environment” was its utmost priority.
“We deploy a combination of technologies, and moderation strategies to detect and review problematic content that violates our terms of use and comprehensive Community Guidelines, and implement appropriate penalties including removing videos and banning accounts,” read the statement.
It said that TikTok had removed 3,728,162 videos in violation of regulations from Pakistan between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2019. The platform also said that the app offers users a number of controls, tools and privacy settings to report inappropriate content, which is then removed if it violates community guidelines.
“Based on our H2 2019 data (July 1–Dec. 31, 2019) from our Transparency Report, our moderation system proactively caught and removed 98.2% of videos before a user reported them; of the total videos removed, 89.4% were taken down before these videos received any views,” it said, adding that the company was also committed to strengthening its protocols to ensure safety for its users.
According to the company, it is also striving to increase dialogue with authorities in all countries it operates in to ensure its policies for user security are reflected in content on its platform.
On Tuesday, PTA announced it was banning live-streaming application Bigo over complaints of “immoral, obscene and vulgar content” and “extremely negative effects” on society. It said it had also received several complaints against TikTok and issued a “final warning” to the company to implement mechanisms to control obscenity, vulgarity and immorality shared via its platform.