By Chinenye Anuforo
TikTok has removed more than 3.6 million videos from its platform in Nigeria between January and March 2025, representing a 50% increase in removals compared to the previous quarter, for violating the app’s Community Guidelines.
These figures came directly from TikTok’s Q1 2025 Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, showing TikTok’s dedication to making its digital space safe, respectful, and trustworthy.
The report highlighted significant efficiency: 98.4% of those videos were caught and removed before anyone reported them to TikTok, and 92.1% were taken down within 24 hours. This demonstrates how much TikTok is investing in innovation, advanced technology, and skilled moderation teams to improve their systems, catching and removing harmful content before it reaches users.
With millions of educational and entertaining videos uploaded to TikTok daily, the platform is constantly improving its ability to spot and delete content that violates its rules. This latest removal report represents just a tiny fraction of all the videos posted by Nigerians every quarter, proving there is far more positive and empowering content circulating.
In March 2025, TikTok also took down 129 accounts in West Africa linked to covert operations.
Regarding TikTok LIVE, which enables creators and viewers to connect and build communities in real time, the platform has significantly tightened its LIVE Monetization Guidelines. They are making it very clear what kind of content is not eligible to generate revenue.
In the first quarter of 2025, TikTok banned 42,196 LIVE rooms and interrupted 48,156 streams in Nigeria that violated their Community Guidelines.
Globally, over 211 million videos were removed in Q1 2025, a jump from 153 million the previous quarter. Over 184 million of those were automatically removed. The platform’s global proactive detection rate reached 99%, showing they are continually improving at finding and deleting harmful content quickly and effectively.
Despite these high-volume removals, harmful content remains a small fraction of what users post. Globally, less than 1% of content uploaded to TikTok violates its Community Guidelines, a strong sign of their ongoing commitment to proactive safety measures.
In June, TikTok Africa hosted its “My Kind of TikTok Digital Well-being Summit.” This brought together experts, NGOs, creators, media, and industry leaders from across Sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria, to discuss openly, tackle, and improve digital well-being both on and off the platform.
Building on a successful trial in Europe, TikTok announced at the Summit that they are expanding their in-app helpline resources to Nigeria. They are partnering with Cece Yara, a non-profit organisation focused on child safety and support. This means that in the coming weeks, young users in Nigeria will have access to local helplines directly in the app, offering expert help when they report content related to suicide, self-harm, hate, and harassment.
Working with experts, TikTok also named Nigeria’s Dr Olawale Ogunlana (Doctor Wales) as a TikTok Digital Well-being Ambassador. He is part of a diverse group of verified healthcare professionals from the WHO Fides Network.
Alongside these safety efforts, TikTok encourages everyone to participate through user reporting and education. Their ongoing #SaferTogether campaign promotes a more collaborative approach to creating a respectful online space.
The Q1 2025 report demonstrated TikTok’s deeper commitment to protecting its Nigerian users, strengthening its enforcement systems, and being transparent about how they are keeping the platform safe.
