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TikTok goes on SA
charm offensive

After barely averting a ban in the USA, the video sharing platform is pushing its safety-first policy in South Africa, writes ARTHUR GOLDSTUCK.

The US Supreme Court ban on TikTok in the United States lasted barely 12 hours, as the video sharing social network lived to fight another day. TikTok owner Bytedance didn’t convince the judges that it was safe for Americans to use but, instead of mounting an aggressive legal attack, it ran for the shelter of incoming president Donald Trump to save it.

Rarely has the saying by the ancient Roman historian Tacitus been more approproiate: “He that fights and runs away, May turn and fight another day.” Sure enough, Trump invoked a provision in the original ban by President Joe Biden that allowed a 90-day stay of execution, giving it just 75 days to strike a deal.

And now, TikTok is fighting on all fronts, including in South Africa.

Starting its local charm offensive, Bytedance highlighted the key elements of its recent Q3 Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, saying that “TikTok has reinforced its commitment to a secure platform for South African users by continuously enhancing safety protocols and moderating content responsibly.”

The big headline for South Africa is that, in the third quarter, TikTok removed 928,334 videos in this country from the platform for “guideline violations”, with 83.6% of these videos removed within 24 hours.

Bytedance said in its statement: “With over a billion people using TikTok globally, and millions of pieces of content posted every day, TikTok continues to invest in technologies which improve content understanding and assess potential risks, allowing the platform to remove harmful content before it reaches viewers.”

The Q3 report shows that, in July and September 2024, the platform removed over 147-million videos globally. Of these, 118-million were removed through automated moderation tools. That isn’t safe enough for the US government, of course. It sees TikTok as giving the Chinese government the ability to spy on American citizens, or at least feed propaganda to them. 

Ultimately, however, the action against TikTok is fallout from the intensive trade war being fought between the two countries.

At this stage, fortunately, South African authorities are less paranoid, and any TikTok debate really would be about safety. Here, TikTok is on the front foot. As it stated this week: “With a proactive detection rate now at 98.2% globally, TikTok is more efficient than ever at addressing harmful content before users encounter it. In South Africa, more than 97.9% of all content was removed before a community member reported it to TikTok.”

According to the Q3 report, the most enforced policies in South Africa were:

  • Regulated Goods and Commercial Activities: 96.9% of removals happening before any user report
  • Sensitive and Mature Themes: 99.5% removals happening before any user report
  • Mental and Behavioural Health: 99.8% of removals happening before any user report

Such efforts can be expected to be further intensified: “As TikTok continues to invest in cutting-edge moderation technologies, its commitment to transparency and platform safety remains at the forefront, ensuring a secure environment for its diverse user base across South Africa and globally.

“By employing dedicated trust and safety professionals and leveraging advanced technology, the platform ensures compliance with its robust Community Guidelines, Terms of Service and Advertising Policies, which apply to all content on its platform.”

  • The full report can be accessed here

Arthur Goldstuck is CEO of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Bluesky on @art2gee.bsky.social.

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