From October 7 through to the end of 2023, TikTok removed more than 169 million fake accounts globally.

TikTok, a short video platform controlled by ByteDance, a Chinese Internet technology company, says it removed 176.5 million videos placed on it, with 1.7 million coming from Nigerian users in the fourth quarter of 2023.

The company revealed in its Community Guidelines Enforcement report that Nigeria was among the top 50 nations where videos breaching TikTok's regulations were common.

These 50 markets accounted for over 90% of all content removals in the quarter.

TikTok clarifies that the removed videos violated several regulations, including those governing integrity and authenticity, privacy and security, safety, and civility, among others.

The report says: “From October 7 through to the end of 2023, we removed more than 169 million fake accounts globally, and we have removed about 1.2 million bot comments on content tagged with hashtags related to the Israel-Hamas war.

“We are continually reviewing and strengthening our systems to identify new patterns and quickly and accurately remove ads that violate our policies. By upholding strict policies, leveraging advanced detection mechanisms, and continuously improving our systems, we strive to foster an advertising experience that is trustworthy, enjoyable, and aligned with the values of our vibrant TikTok community.”

During the fourth quarter of 2023, TikTok saw an increase in the removal of ads owing to policy violations, while the amount of ads deleted due to account-level actions fell.

According to the report, 1.5 million ads were removed in Q4 2023 due to violations of TikTok's advertising standards, up from 1.3 million in Q3.

TikTok says that it will be diligent in detecting external threats and protecting the site from false accounts and activity.

“TikTok is resolute in its commitment to promptly identify and remove any accounts, content, or activities aimed at artificially boosting popularity. During the fourth quarter of 2023, we saw an increase in some of our fake engagement metrics," says the company.