KARACHI: Video-sharing platform TikTok has taken down approximately 20 million videos in Pakistan for violating community guidelines, the company said on Monday, underscoring its resolve to effectively combat violations.
TikTok, a social media app that allows users to create and share short-form videos, made the disclosure in its report for the first quarter of the year. The platform has become extremely popular among younger generations, with over a billion active users worldwide.
However, this is not the first time that TikTok has removed videos from Pakistan. In July 2023, the video-sharing app had taken action against 11.7 million videos from Pakistan for the same reason.
“In Pakistan alone, the platform took action against 20,207,878 videos for breaching its community guidelines in the first quarter,” TikTok said in a statement on Monday, following the release of its Community Guidelines Enforcement Report 2024.
In the past, Pakistani authorities have banned the video-sharing service several times, with the first ban instituted in October 2020 over what was described as widespread complaints about allegedly “immoral, obscene, and vulgar” content on the app.
The service has been prohibited from operating in the country thrice more than 15 months since then. In November 2021, a Pakistani court finally reversed the ban after TikTok assured the government it would control the spread of objectionable content.
TikTok said the latest report highlighted the platform’s commitment to transparency, safety and inclusivity apart from how the company reflected its dedication to building trust and ensuring a safe platform for its global community.
The video platform removed 166,997,307 videos worldwide during the Jan-March period of 2024, of which 129,335,793 were identified through an automated detection technology, whereas 6,042,287 videos were reinstated, according to the report. The platform “removed and filtered” 976,479,946 comments also, using the safety tools.
“TikTok aggressively pursued spam accounts and related content, implementing robust measures to prevent the proliferation of automated spam accounts,” the company said, highlighting that 93.9 percent of videos violating guidelines were removed within 24 hours of posting with the removal rate resting at 99.8 percent globally.
TikTok also deleted 21,639,414 accounts suspected of belonging to children under the age of 13, the company said.

ISLAMABAD: A Kenyan high court has declared a 2022 police killing of Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif unlawful and ordered authorities to initiate criminal proceedings against the two police officers involved in it, the lawyer representing Sharif’s widow said on Monday.
Sharif was considered deeply critical of Pakistan’s powerful military, and a staunch supporter of Imran Khan, Pakistan’s now jailed former prime minister. He left Pakistan in August 2022 after sedition charges were filed against him over an interview with an opposition politician who said junior officers in Pakistan’s military should disobey orders that went against “the will of the majority.”
The popular primetime anchorman was assassinated in Kenya on October 23, 2022. Initially, the Kenyan media quoted the local police as saying that Sharif was shot dead by the police due to “mistaken identity.” Later reports indicated that when Sharif was killed, a man in his car opened fire on officers of the Kenyan Paramilitary General Service Unit.
Sharif’s widow, Javeria Siddique, together with the Kenya Union of Journalists and Kenya Correspondents Association, filed a complaint last year against top Kenyan officials over the “arbitrary and unlawful killing” and their “failure to investigate.” After a total of three hearings, the court reserved its verdict on May 8, which was subsequently announced today, Monday.
“In its decision, the Kenyan High Court has declared the killing unlawful, ordered the Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to complete the pending investigation, charge both policemen involved and produce them before the court,” Ochiel Dudley, the lawyer who represented Sharif’s widow, told Arab News.
The court ruled that the DPP and IPOA violated the rights of the victim by failing to prosecute the two police officers, and that “Kenya violated Sharif’s right to life, dignity, and freedom from torture, cruel and degrading treatment,” according to Dudley.
“The court ordered the state to pay 10 million Kenyan shillings ($78,000) with interest from the date of the judgment until the full amount is paid to the victim’s family,” he said.
As a lawyer, Dudley said, he pleaded to get the declaration from the court that the killing was unlawful and it violated both Kenyan and international laws.
“The court has reiterated that the use of extreme force is an extreme measure and should be used only as a last resort, when the life of another is in danger,” he added.
Sharif’s widow, Siddique, hailed the Kenyan court for delivering the verdict within a year.
“Today’s decision is very welcome because Arshad’s case has not been heard by the court in Pakistan for a year, but the Kenyan court has decided the case in less than a year,” she told Arab News.
Siddique expressed her gratitude as the court had accepted all the pleas made by her.
“The most important aspect is that the court accepted that Sharif’s killing was not a result of mistaken identity, but rather a targeted killing,” she said. “This decision will be very significant in ensuring freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the future.”
She said the Kenyan policemen were actually “hired killers” and demanded Pakistani authorities take action against the mastermind of Sharif’s killing.
Sharif had been on the run in Kenya, citing threats to his life in Pakistan, when he was killed on the outskirts of Nairobi. The killing stunned journalists in Pakistan as well as the Pakistani public among whom Sharif had a wide following.
Last year, Pakistan’s then interior minister Rana Sanaullah said there was evidence to suggest Sharif’s was a targeted killing based on initial findings of a team of Pakistani investigators who visited Kenya. Sharif’s body had bruises and torture marks, Sanaullah added.