TikTok removes over 6 mn videos for violating community guidelines in India

New Delhi, Apr 12: TikTok, a popular short video platform, on Friday said it has removed over six million videos in India that have violated its community guidelines since July last year.

"This is part of TikTok's ongoing efforts to make its millions of users feel safe and comfortable within the community by empowering them with the right tools and resources," it said in a statement.

The company has also introduced an 'age-gate' feature for its new users that will only allow users aged 13 years and above only to login and create an account on TikTok. It does not disclose data such as country-specific user numbers. This, it said, will further add to the safety mechanisms in place to ensure that underage users do not use the platform.

"As a global community, safety has been one of TikTok’s key priorities... (These steps) reinforce our ongoing commitment to ensure that our platform remains a safe and positive space for our Indian users and we discharge our obligations under the Intermediary Guidelines of India, in a meaningful manner," TikTok Director (Global Public Policy) Helena Lersch said.

These announcements closely follow the launch of TikTok's Safety Centre and resource pages tackling bullying activities in 10 major local languages - Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Oriya.

Additionally, TikTok has recently added an advisory for the upcoming general elections in English and 10 major local languages on the Safety Centre page that links to the website of the Election Commission of India (ECI).

PTI