TikTok Reinforces Commitment to Safety across MENA: Over 16.5 million Videos Removed for Community Guidelines violations in Q1 2025

Manal Saleh

Dubai, August 4, 2025 - TikTok has published its Q1 2025 Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, shedding light on its continued efforts to maintain a safe, respectful, and inclusive environment for users across the MENA region. From January to March 2025, TikTok removed more than 16.5 million videos across MENA violating its Community Guidelines. The figures represent Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, UAE, and Morocco, offering a representative view of TikTok’s enforcement efforts across the region during this period.

TikTok scaled up its enforcement across LIVE content, stopping more than 19 million violative LIVE videos globally in Q1 2025, a 50% increase from the previous quarter. This robust intervention highlights the company's ongoing investment in advanced moderation technologies that can detect violative livestreams quickly and consistently. Upholding community guidelines remains a core priority for the platform. In Q1 2025 alone, TikTok banned 849,976 LIVE hosts and proactively interrupted over 1.5 million livestreams across Egypt, the UAE, Iraq, Lebanon, and Morocco. These sustained enforcement efforts reflect TikTok’s commitment to maintaining moderation accuracy as the scale of automated decisions continues to expand.

Egypt

In Q1 2025, TikTok removed 2.9 million videos in Egypt for violating its Community Guidelines. The country achieved proactive removal rate at 99.6%, ensuring that nearly all harmful content was identified and removed before user reports. Additionally, 94.3% of violative content was taken down within 24 hours, reflecting strong responsiveness. In addition to removing violative short-form videos, TikTok also banned 347,935 LIVE hosts and interrupted 587,246 livestreams for violating the platform’s Community Guidelines.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)

In the UAE, 1,051,226 videos were removed for violating TikTok’s Community Guidelines. The country recorded a proactive removal rate of 98.2%, and 94% of harmful content was taken down within 24 hours, underscoring TikTok’s ongoing commitment to safety. Furthermore, TikTok banned 86,790 LIVE hosts and interrupted 140,295 livestreams as part of its ongoing efforts to enforce safety policies and uphold platform integrity.

Morocco

TikTok removed 1,040,981 videos in Morocco during Q1 2025. The platform’s proactive removal rate 98.9% of violative content without user reports. Moreover, 92.1% of these videos were taken down within 24 hours, showing strong moderation efficiency. In addition, TikTok banned 44,121 LIVE hosts and disrupted 77,396 livestreams in line with its commitment to enforcing Community Guidelines and protecting the platform experience.

Iraq

Iraq recorded more than 10 million video removals for violations in Q1 2025 with proactive removal rate of 99.5%, showing strong performance in preemptive content detection. TikTok also acted quickly in Iraq, with 95.5% of violative videos removed within 24 hours. On the LIVE front, TikTok banned 346,335 LIVE hosts and interrupted 649,551 livestreams for violating the platform’s Community Guidelines.

Lebanon

TikTok removed 1,349,478 videos from Lebanon in Q1 2025. With a 99.5% proactive removal rate, the platform maintained robust detection systems with 96.9% of violative content taken down within the first 24 hours, highlighting a rapid response to potential harm. The platform also banned 24,795 LIVE hosts and interrupted 45,536 livestreams for violating Community Guidelines, reinforcing its commitment to maintaining a safe and respectful environment.

Appeals and Restoration

TikTok also showed transparency and fairness through its content appeal and restoration process. In cases where users successfully appealed moderation decisions, their videos were restored. Iraq saw the highest number of restored videos at 209,291, followed by Egypt with 144,605, Morocco with 53,525, the UAE with 41,148, and Lebanon with 31,880. These figures illustrate TikTok’s commitment to allowing users to appeal moderation decisions if they believe a mistake was made while maintaining platform integrity.

Transparency, Accountability, and Trust

TikTok's Community Guidelines are enforced through a hybrid model of automated systems and human moderation, ensuring content is reviewed efficiently and fairly. Users are always informed when content is removed, with the ability to appeal decisions.

Transparency: A Foundation for Trust and a Safer Digital Space

Beyond content enforcement, TikTok continues to engage users across the region through digital literacy initiatives, media partnerships, and community engagement efforts aimed at promoting safer, more informed use of the platform. The Q1 2025 report serves as a comprehensive reflection of TikTok's evolving approach to community protection, robust content moderation, and proactive user empowerment in MENA Region and globally. By strategically combining cutting-edge technology, invaluable human insight, and impactful partnerships, TikTok remains steadfastly committed to cultivating a digital environment where creativity flourishes, and everyone feels genuinely secure.

The full report can be accessed here.

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