TikTok has the highest volume of harmful content per user among the major social media apps, a new study has revealed. The platform saw over 400 million content actioned (removed or covered with a warning) for being harmful or breaking community guidelines in 2022, with US users being the worst offenders. Facebook and Instagram are the next worst-hit social platforms.
According to a Uswitch.com report, TikTok took action against 412.8 million videos for policy violation last year. That’s 37,798 videos actioned per 100,000 users. The most violated policies include Minor Safety, Illegal Activities, and Adult Nudity and Sexual Activities. Harassment and Bullying, Dangerous Acts and Challenges, and Hateful Behavior are also among the TikTok policies violated frequently.
A region-wise breakdown of violations reveals that US users post more harmful content on TikTok than any other country. 13 million TikTok videos posted from the US in 2022 were found to violate the company’s community guidelines. Pakistan (12.6 million) and Indonesia (7.6 million) posted the second-highest volume of violent content on the video-sharing app last year.
It’s worth noting that the US, Indonesia, and Pakistan are the three most populated countries after India and China. While TikTok is completely banned in India, the app goes by a different name in China (Douyin). There’s an ongoing debate over whether the US government should ban the platform nationwide. Montana has already banned TikTok across the state, though.
Facebook and Instagram also removed millions of harmful content
After TikTok, Facebook had the second-highest ratio of actioned content in 2022. The Meta-owned platform removed or covered over 600 million posts last year, which is 20,304 posts per 100,000 users. Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity, Violent and Graphic Content, and Child Endangerment (Sexual Exploitation) were among the most commonly violated policies.
Instagram actioned over 185.8 million posts for violating community guidelines last year (9,292 posts per 100,000 users). The most violated policies on the platform include Adult Nudity and Sexual Activity, Violent and Graphic Content, and Bullying and Harassment. Child Endangerment (Sexual Exploitation) and Child Endangerment (Nudity and Physical Abuse) policies also saw frequent violations.
Twitter and YouTube make up the top five social media platforms with the most number of harmful content removed in 2022. The volume of actioned content per 100,000 users on these two platforms is 2,954 and 777, respectively. Unfortunately, despite the social media space full of harmful content, parents haven’t been able to stop their children from using these platforms.
The same report states that 86 percent of 11-12-year-olds, who are below social media age restrictions, have social media accounts in the US. Kids aged as young as 8 years also use social media. Some parents rely on parental control apps to monitor their child’s safety while using their mobile phones. Google Family Link, Kidslox, and FamilyTime are among the highest-rated parental control apps on the market.
