TikTok has intensified its crackdown on harmful and policy-violating content in Nigeria, removing over 3.6 million videos between January and March 2025, according to its latest Q1 2025 Community Guidelines Enforcement Report. The move underscores the platform’s commitment to maintaining a safe and respectful online environment for its growing Nigerian community.
The report revealed that TikTok achieved an impressive 98.4% proactive detection rate, meaning most violative videos were removed before users could report them. Additionally, 92.1% of the flagged content was taken down within 24 hours of being posted. The volume of removals represents a 50% increase compared to the previous quarter, reflecting TikTok’s intensified monitoring efforts.
Despite the scale of enforcement, TikTok noted that harmful content still accounts for less than one percent of total uploads, stressing that the majority of Nigerian creators continue to post positive, educational, and entertaining videos.
TikTok has also stepped up enforcement on its LIVE streaming feature, which has been prone to misuse. In the first quarter of 2025, the platform banned 42,196 LIVE rooms and interrupted 48,156 LIVE streams in Nigeria for violating community rules. Furthermore, 129 accounts linked to covert operations across West Africa were removed in March 2025.
“LIVE content enforcement remains a priority as we continue to protect the integrity of real-time interactions on the platform,” the report stated.
Globally, TikTok removed over 211 million videos in Q1 2025, a significant rise from 153 million in Q4 2024. Of these, 184 million videos were automatically removed through TikTok’s AI-driven detection system, boasting a 99% global proactive detection rate.
To complement its enforcement drive, TikTok is expanding digital well-being initiatives in Nigeria. In June, the platform hosted the “My Kind of TikTok Digital Well-being Summit”, bringing together creators, NGOs, and industry leaders to discuss online safety.
As part of its new safety push, TikTok launched an in-app helpline in Nigeria in partnership with Cece Yara, a child-focused NGO. The helpline will offer expert guidance to young users facing issues such as cyberbullying, self-harm, harassment, and online abuse.
The platform also appointed Dr. Olawale Ogunlana, popularly known as Doctor Wales, as Nigeria’s Digital Well-being Ambassador. He joins a network of healthcare professionals under the WHO Fides Network to educate users on healthy digital habits.
TikTok is urging Nigerian users to actively report harmful content and participate in its ongoing #SaferTogether campaign, designed to promote respectful interactions online. The platform also warned against sharing watermarked or copied content, stressing that such behavior could lead to reduced reach or loss of monetisation privileges.
TikTok’s Professional Dashboard now features post-level insights and a new Support Home screen, allowing creators to track the performance of their content and check if their accounts face any restrictions.
With Nigeria being one of TikTok’s fastest-growing markets in Africa, the platform’s aggressive enforcement measures are seen as crucial for maintaining trust among creators and advertisers. Industry analysts believe that TikTok’s approach, combined with its safety initiatives, could influence broader conversations about social media regulation and content moderation in Africa.
As TikTok continues to tighten its rules, experts advise creators to prioritise originality, meaningful storytelling, and compliance with community guidelines to thrive on the platform.