The famous short-form video sharing platform, TikTok has stated that it has “aggressively banned” several accounts and devices in Myanmar, to restrain misinformation and the spread of violent videos on its platform.
As per the report released by the Rest of the World, the government soldiers in Myanmar have posted a large number of videos on TikTok since the time of the military seizing the control last month. In response to this, TikTok removed some of the videos from its platform, consisting of the rise in hate speech and warnings in the Southeast Asian country.
The report further stated that the company has confirmed that it had not moved quickly enough to obstruct the spread of menacing videos and other violent content. The videos are means for straightforward promotion, used to create compassion for security forces and defend their cruelty. Some videos contain misinformation, which is utilized to divide and mislead anti-coup protesters. Others are downright warnings: soldiers and police displaying guns and ammunition, threatening demonstrators that they are prepared to use them.
According to a spokesperson at TikTok, “The promotion of hate, violence, and misinformation has absolutely no place on TikTok. When we identified the rapidly escalating situation in Myanmar, we quickly expanded our dedicated resources and further stepped up efforts to remove violative content. We aggressively banned numerous accounts and devices that we identified promoting dangerous content at scale.”
Moreover, the TikTok spokesperson also added that the Chinese social media platform will proceed to make an important investment to counter to new warnings in order to retain TikTok in Myanmar as a safe platform.
In addition to it, Activists and rights advocates have expressed that TikTok is practiced to spread government propaganda in the country, which exhibited similarities to the way the country’s military used Facebook to create disorder and hate speech upon the country’s Rohingya minority in the early 2010s.
Though, TikTok is not the only firm delivering severe actions as Facebook announced, in February, that it will be banning Myanmar’s military from all respective Facebook services.
Read more: PHC rules to continue the ban on TikTok until immoral content is removed
Source: The Verge
