DSA report says nearly 21.2m pieces of content removed from July-December 2024
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TikTok’s latest report on EU content moderation and user numbers shows a dynamic platform struggling with growth and changing challenges. This, its fourth Digital Services Act (DSA) report, covered the period from July to December 2024, where it highlighted key trends in user engagement, content removal and moderation strategies.
The report indicated that during this period, TikTok removed nearly 21.2 million pieces of content for violating community guidelines, a figure consistent with previous reports. However, the number of removals for ad policy violations increased significantly, by a factor of 3.4 since the last update. This jump is attributed to a fourfold increase in removals related to misleading and false content, and adult and sexual content, in addition to a sixfold increase in removals related to IP infringement.
Perhaps the most notable increase was within the politics and religion and culture category, with a 19-fold jump in deletions. This increase coincides with a number of key elections during the reporting period, indicating possible attempts by politically motivated groups to use the platform for broader messaging. While the report does not provide specific details on the nature of these deletions, it suggests that TikTok’s content detection systems effectively identified and addressed potentially misleading ads within this sensitive domain.
Despite these efforts, TikTok’s dedicated moderation staff in the EU decreased from 6,354 in October 2024 to 5,807 in December 2024, a decrease of 547 personnel. This shift could indicate a strategic reliance on automated systems for content discovery and tagging. The platform emphasises its commitment to accuracy, reporting 99.1% accuracy for automated moderation technologies in the second half of 2024.
Meanwhile, TikTok’s user base in Europe continues to grow, reaching 159.1 million monthly active users during the reporting period – a notable increase of about 9 million from the previous report. Germany, France, Italy and Spain remain key markets within the EU, each with more than 20 million users. This steady growth highlights TikTok’s growing influence in the region and offers a promising outlook for the future, despite ongoing challenges and criticisms in other markets such as the United States.
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