TikTok removed more than 1.1 million videos in South Africa during the fourth quarter of 2025 for violating its Community Guidelines, while also interrupting more than 188 000 live streaming rooms that breached its platform rules.
The figures were revealed in TikTok's latest Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, for October to December 2025, which outlines the company's efforts to combat harmful content and improve online safety on the platform.
According to the report, TikTok removed 1.13 million videos in SA between October and December 2025. Of these, 99.9% were detected and removed proactively before being reported by users, while 98.4% were taken down within 24 hours of being posted.
TikTok says the high removal rate reflects continued investment in automated detection technologies and moderation systems designed to prevent harmful content from spreading across the platform.
“TikTok also removed 520 515 local accounts suspected of belonging to children under the age of 13, which is below the minimum age requirement to use the platform. The action forms part of TikTok's broader efforts to protect younger users and create a safer digital environment,” notes the report.
Globally, TikTok says it removed 175.3 million videos during the quarter, representing approximately 0.5% of all content uploaded to the platform.
More than 152.5 million of those videos were identified and removed through automated detection systems, while 8.36 million videos were later reinstated following further review.
TikTok also reported increased enforcement activity on its Live streaming service. In SA, 188 499 Live rooms were interrupted for violating platform guidelines.
“Globally, TikTok issued warnings or demonetisation actions on 17.7 million Live sessions and 9.3 million creators for breaching Live monetisation policies. The warnings are intended to educate creators and allow them to correct behaviour before stronger enforcement measures are applied.”
The report also highlights TikTok's efforts to tackle harmful and misleading artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content.
During the quarter, TikTok removed 13 369 videos in SA under its edited media and AI-generated content policies. The platform requires creators to label realistic AI-generated images, audio and video content, and has introduced several measures to improve transparency around such material.
Among these measures is the use of "invisible watermarking" technology and C2PA Content Credentials, an industry-standard framework that embeds metadata into content to identify when it has been created or modified using AI. TikTok says these initiatives have helped label more than 1.3 billion videos globally to date.
“TikTok remains committed to protecting users while fostering creativity and expression on the platform. We continue to rely on a combination of automated moderation technologies and human safety teams to enforce policies against misinformation, hate speech and other harmful content.
“Beyond content moderation, TikTok also intensified efforts to protect platform integrity by removing more than 143.8 million fake accounts globally during the quarter, alongside 23.9 million accounts suspected of belonging to users under the age of 13.”
The report further reveals that 21.2% of all videos removed worldwide contained sensitive or mature themes that violated TikTok's content policies. A further 9.1% breached the platform's safety and civility standards.
According to the company, these actions form part of its broader strategy to combat spam, fake engagement and underage access while maintaining a safer online environment for users.
Share
