This archive report was first published on 21 August 2020.
On August 20, 2020, TikTok announced its efforts to combat hate content on the platform, citing the removal of over 380,000 videos in the US this year.
As part of its mission to eliminate hate, TikTok has also banned over 1,300 accounts for breaking rules against hateful content or behavior, and deleted 64,000 comments on similar grounds.
TikTok's US head of safety, Eric Han, emphasized the company's commitment to action, stating, 'These numbers don’t reflect a 100 percent success rate in catching every piece of hateful content or behavior, but they do indicate our commitment to action.'
Despite facing criticism and executive orders from President Donald Trump, TikTok maintains that it has never provided any US user data to the Chinese government and would not do so if asked.
Trump has issued executive orders giving TikTok parent ByteDance deadlines to stop running the app in the US and divest TikTok, citing concerns over national security.
TikTok has a zero-tolerance stance against accounts linked to white nationalism, male supremacy, anti-Semitism, and other hate-based ideologies.
