TikTok removes two dozen ISIS propaganda accounts
Tue 22 October 2019:
Social media app TikTok has taken down accounts that were posting propaganda videos for the Islamic State group, a company employee said Tuesday, in the latest scandal to hit the popular platform.
TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, claimed some 500 million users globally last year, making it one of the most popular social apps.It’s not clear how big a presence ISIS has on TikTok.
Terrorist propaganda is a perennial issue for social media platforms. Companies like Facebook and Google share a database of known terrorist imagery that can be automatically removed when it’s detected online.
The app has been marred by controversy in recent months.
They’ve also faced (and won) several lawsuits for allowing it even temporarily on their platforms. Facebook said in September that it removed more than 26 million pieces of global terrorist propaganda over the past two years. TikTok’s parent company ByteDance didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about how much terrorist content TikTok finds and takes down.
In April, TikTok was briefly banned by an Indian court over claims it was promoting pornography among children.
The app is banned in neighbouring Bangladesh and was hit with an enormous fine in the United States for illegally collecting information from children.
The company has refuted the allegations, saying they abide by local privacy laws.
ByteDance has a version of TikTok in China called Douyin.
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