TikTok removes 10 million Iraqi videos in Q1 on violations
Shafaq News – Baghdad
TikTok removed more than 10 million videos in Iraq during the first quarter of 2025 for violating community guidelines, according to the platform’s latest transparency report.
The Q1 2025 report highlighted TikTok’s efforts to “foster a safer digital environment across several Arab countries.”
In Iraq, the platform said 99.5% of violating content was removed proactively, while 95.5% was deleted within 24 hours of being posted.
Regarding live content, TikTok reported banning over 346,000 hosts and shutting down around 650,000 live streams in Iraq during the same period due to similar violations.
The report also noted that a total of 16.5 million videos were removed between January and March 2025 across Iraq, Egypt, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, and Morocco for breaching the platform’s guidelines.
Globally, TikTok shut down more than 19 million violating live streams during the first quarter of the year, a 50% increase from the previous quarter. Within the same period, the platform banned 849,976 live-stream hosts worldwide and preemptively removed more than 1.5 million live broadcasts across the five Arab countries mentioned.
Earlier, Iraq’s Minister of Communications, Hiyam Al-Yasiri, announced plans to ban TikTok in the country, where the app is used by over 34 million people. She cited widespread concerns from families about the platform’s negative influence on societal values.
Al-Yasiri stated that the app contributes to the "disintegration of the social fabric," while digital media experts have argued that TikTok remains a valuable tool for entrepreneurs, content creators, and a key source of income for thousands of young Iraqis in marketing and digital sales.
