Video sharing platform, TikTok said it removed more than 3.6 million videos uploaded by Nigerian users in the first quarter of 2025 for violating its community guidelines, marking a 50 per cent surge from the 2.4 million videos taken down in the previous quarter.
This was made known in the platform’s Q1 2025 Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, which highlights TikTok’s global efforts to build a safe, respectful, and authentic digital ecosystem.
According to the company, the spike in enforcement reflects the platform’s strengthened detection systems and commitment to protecting its user community from harmful or misleading content.
In Nigeria, the app recorded a proactive detection rate of 98.4 per cent, meaning the vast majority of flagged content was identified and removed before users reported it.
Additionally, 92.1 per cent of the violative content was removed within 24 hours of being uploaded. The platform also banned 42,196 live rooms and interrupted 48,156 streams in Nigeria that were found to be in breach of TikTok’s content guidelines.
Globally, TikTok said it removed more than 211 million videos in the first three months of the year, up from 153 million in Q4 2024. Of the total, over 184 million videos were taken down using automated detection systems, a testament to the growing reliance on AI for content moderation.
The global proactive detection rate hit 99 per cent, demonstrating further improvements in identifying and removing harmful content swiftly and efficiently.
Beyond video removals, the report also exposed the scale of fake engagement and spam on the platform.
Between January and March 2025, TikTok removed approximately 44.7 million comments identified as spam or originating from fake accounts.
It also deleted 4.3 billion fake likes, followers, and follow requests—content it found to have been generated through “automated or inauthentic mechanisms”.
“We remain vigilant in our efforts to detect external threats and safeguard the platform from fake accounts and engagement,” TikTok said in the report.
“These threats persistently probe and attack our systems, leading to occasional fluctuations in the reported metrics within these areas. Despite this, we are steadfast in our commitment to promptly identify and remove any accounts, content, or activities that seek to artificially boost popularity on our platform.”
The company also took down 129 accounts across West Africa in March 2025 linked to coordinated covert influence operations, underscoring the regional implications of misinformation and digital manipulation.
As TikTok LIVE continues to grow in popularity among creators in Nigeria, the company said it had updated its Live Monetisation Guidelines to make clear what types of content are eligible for earning potential.
At the same time, enforcement of these guidelines remains a key priority, especially to ensure that real-time interactions do not become vehicles for abuse or misinformation.
Despite the scale of enforcement actions, TikTok maintained that harmful content represents a very small fraction—less than 1 per cent—of total content uploaded to the platform globally.
The company emphasised that the data reflects its ongoing efforts to uphold trust and safety, especially in fast-growing markets like Nigeria, where youth adoption of the platform continues to rise.
With Nigeria among TikTok’s largest user bases in Africa, the report is expected to draw the attention of local regulators and digital rights advocates, particularly as discussions around content moderation, misinformation, and platform accountability intensify.
TikTok, owned by Chinese technology firm ByteDance, has been under global scrutiny from governments and watchdogs over issues related to data privacy, content regulation, and influence operations. Its enforcement reports, published quarterly, are part of an ongoing transparency initiative designed to show the public how the platform addresses emerging digital threats.
