Madhurima
TikTok released its first transparency report on 30th December, 2019. According to the report, India tops the list of the country with most requests for user information and content take down. These user information requests were made from 28 countries. In the first half of 2019, India had already made 107 requests, out of which, 99 were legal and 8 were emergency.
“Any information request we receive is carefully reviewed for legal sufficiency, to determine whether, for example, the requesting entity is authorized to gather evidence in connection with a law enforcement investigation or to investigate an emergency involving imminent harm,” said a TikTok representative in a statement.
The reports further revealed that the Indian Government also made 11 requests to take certain content down from 9 different accounts. Out of the requests received, TikTok restricted 8 accounts and removed 4 videos.
The company further mentioned “In addition to legal information requests, government bodies sometimes request that we remove content they deem to be a violation of local laws. We review such requests closely and evaluate the specified content in accordance with our Community Guidelines and local laws.”
The China based short-video app has come under the limelight for many issues like harassment, perverse content, child-privacy violations and so on in our country. However, not every request which was made legally was valid as per TikTok.
The other country which was right behind India in terms of most user information request was the United States of America.. America made a total of 85 requests, 79 for accessing user content and 6 for removing content.
