Icon: enlarge
Photo: Dado Ruvic / REUTERS
The short video app TikTok removed a clip from its platform that showed a man taking his own life.
The company announced on Tuesday.
"On Sunday evening, videos of a suicide that had been broadcast on Facebook via livestream circulated on other platforms, including TikTok," the company wrote to SPIEGEL in a statement.
The company had previously stated on Twitter that the in-house systems automatically recognized and flagged the clip as a violation of the guidelines.
They not only removed the video itself, but also blocked accounts that had tried several times to upload the clip again.
In the tweets under the statement, however, some violent criticism can be read: The deletion comes too late, many of the - mostly very young - TikTok users have already seen the disturbing film.
"He shouldn't have made it into the app", writes one user in capital letters.
You are more likely to encounter the clip on TikTok
Some report that they even saw the film several times, some of which were embedded in other videos.
Some say they reported certain videos related to the clip - but TikTok informed them that the reported content did not violate community guidelines.
However, there is also agreement at TikTok that the said video itself violates the guidelines.
A spokesman told SPIEGEL that content "that depicts suicide or suicidal ideation, as well as content that calls for participation in similar acts" will be removed.
"Content that praises, glorifies or promotes suicide or that contains instructions on suicide" would also be deleted from TikTok.
Before the platform commented on the matter, TikTok users had already warned each other about the video with its disturbing images, reports the tech portal "The Verge", among others.
Since TikTok also flushes the contributions of strangers into your own feed, it is more likely there than in other social networks that you will see the unwanted content.
Some advised to avoid the app first
Screenshots from the film with a bearded man circulated on TikTok, but also on Twitter, for example - with the advice not to look at it, but to stop it and quickly scroll on.
Some also advised their followers to avoid the app completely for a day or two.
After all, it is part of the concept of the app, so to speak, to let yourself drift through the offer and shimmy from clip to clip.
"We really appreciate the fact that our community reported content and warned others, out of respect for the person concerned and their family, not to view the content on other platforms or pass it on," the TikTok spokesman wrote to SPIEGEL, and continued: "We appeal to our users to turn to a hotline if they need support or are concerned about friends or family members. We enable hotlines to be accessed directly from our app as well as from our security center. "
TikTok is owned by the Chinese company Bytedance and has been criticized in the past for moderating the content.
According to its transparency report from July, the company introduced a new system for content moderation last December - a mixture of technology and human moderators who act themselves but also check user reports.
They, in turn, "can choose from a list of reasons why they think a video or account violates our policies (such as depicting violence or injury, harassment, or hate speech)."
(With material from Reuters)
Icon: The mirror
