151
By Oscar Okhifo
Video-sharing platform TikTok has removed more than 3.6 million videos in Nigeria in the first quarter of 2025, as part of its continued efforts to enforce community guidelines and create a safer online environment for all users.
The figure, recently released in TikTok’s Q1 2025 Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, marks a 50 percent increase from the 2.4 million videos taken down in the last quarter of 2024. The removals were attributed to violations such as misinformation, hate speech, nudity, harassment, and other content deemed harmful or inappropriate under the platform’s rules.
According to TikTok, 98.4 percent of the offending Nigerian videos were removed proactively before any user could report them, while 92.1 percent were taken down within 24 hours of being posted.
Globally, TikTok removed 211 million videos during the same period, up from 153 million in the previous quarter, demonstrating a broader ramp-up in content moderation efforts across its platforms.
The company also took action against live stream abuses in Nigeria, banning 42,196 live rooms and interrupting 48,156 live broadcasts that violated its policies.
As part of a wider crackdown on inauthentic behavior, TikTok said it removed 44.7 million fake comments and 4.3 billion fake likes, follows, or requests globally in the quarter under review. It also confirmed that 129 accounts linked to coordinated influence operations in West Africa were removed in March alone.
Reinforcing its commitment to digital well-being in Nigeria, TikTok hosted the “My Kind of TikTok” Digital Wellbeing Summit in June, where it announced new partnerships with NGOs and mental health professionals. The platform has also introduced in-app helplines to provide real-time support for users facing issues such as suicide, self-harm, bullying, or harassment, in collaboration with Nigerian child protection group “Cece Yara”.
In addition, TikTok appointed Nigerian health influencer and Doctor, Olawale Ogunlana,popularly known as Doctor Wales as its Digital Well-being Ambassador to help raise awareness on safe usage of the app among Nigerian youths.
The company is also expanding its #SaferTogether campaign to further promote community engagement in reporting harmful content and understanding safety tools on the app.
These moves come as part of TikTok’s ongoing efforts to address concerns about online safety, fake engagement, and the mental health of its growing user base in Nigeria and beyond. It is the responsibility of users to be responsible and to always report every inresponsible action of any user.