Thread by @stokel

Big day for TikTok as it releases its H1 2020 transparency report and its head of public policy in Europe, @theobertram, appears in front of @CommonsDCMS. Will be doing a thread through the day, but first off, the transparency report: there's been a 2x increase in video removals

From just shy of 49 million videos taken down in H2 2019, TikTok took down 104.5 million in H1 2020. Proportions of the types of videos taken down stayed broadly the same with the December 2019 numbers they reported

TikTok says the number of videos, though they doubled in absolute number, remained at "less than 1% of all videos on TikTok". We know thanks to my reporting here that at least 5 million videos are uploaded every hour businessinsider.com/leaked-tiktok-…

So we can assume that while the data TikTok releases indciates the app at least doubled in size in the first six months of 2020, it's actually far greater growth than that. Here's the countries with the highest number of video removals. Surprise, surprise, India tops the list

(That's not surprising because India, before it banned TikTok and a bunch of other Chinese-owned apps, accounted for roughly a quarter of TikTok users worldwide.) What it shows is India was more censorious than most, which is supported by the number of legal takedown requests too

Things that are potentially concerning: TikTok had a lot of takedown requests under local laws in Russia. @ASPI_org highlighted cultural censorship of LGBTQ content bleeding out beyond a country's borders as an issue as I reported on here newscientist.com/article/225412…

Also of interest for those wondering about TikTok's place as a major platform in the future: copyright takedown requests increased nearly 10x on the previous six months. That might give more sense of the scale of platform growth

As I pointed out when the H2 2019 stats came out, TikTok manages to be quite proactive in removing a lot of content before it's seen by anyone, and that continues in this report. 96.5% of videos were taken down without being reported, and 90% had no views

Anyway, here's my requisite book plug (you can pre-order now!) and a PSA: you may want to stick around this thread later. @CommonsDCMS proceedings kick off at 10am canburypress.com/products/tik-t…

SCOOP: Here’s the inside story of how TikTok struggled to deal with the suicide video earlier this month. 10,000 videos were uploaded in a short period of time to the platform businessinsider.com/tiktok-removes…

Also in my @businessinsider story, breaking news that TikTok is calling for a cross-industry initiative to tackle the scourge of such videos. @v_ness has sent a letter to nine other platforms asking to pool resources
businessinsider.com/tiktok-removes…

I would love to live tweet the DVMS hearing but a BBC Two producer has me on a call lol

Lol who is this joker who is admitting his TikTok is a thirst trap? The algorithm is based on your engagement m8

"You can't have an entire meal based on carrots," says @theobertram, trying to explain algorithms to middle-aged MPs. Can we have @DamianCollins back on the DCMS committee please?

Alex Davies-Jones MP asking about the suicide video that went viral on TikTok earlier this month for @CommonsDCMS. Here's the inside story of what happened from my scoop for @businessinsider businessinsider.com/tiktok-removes…

Congratulations to the MP in the Commons DCMS committee who just took a Skype call and interrupted a really interesting answer from TikTok

These people are on the DIGITAL, culture, MEDIA and sports committee. They're meant to be our most tech-literate MPs.

Hi @julianknight15, you do know you can just look at the TikTok newsroom for that letter right? newsroom.tiktok.com/en-gb/tiktok-p…

Hi @MrJohnNicolson, if you look at this thread you'll see the numbers you're asking for

Jesus christ @MrJohnNicolson, the data is literally published here about Russian removals

"I agree with you: the Russian law is terrible... but unfortunately we have to comply with legal requests in the country we operate," says @theobertram of LGBTQ issues on TikTok

I see we've got to the "how well do you know history" quiz point of the TikTok hearing, here

We had a very roundabout way to a proper question there about Feroza Aziz. There is a difficulty here for TikTok in that the (horrific) rules and policies *were* in place. The challenge of its origin in China

Oh that's a new number: 300 million videos were posted on TikTok in the UK in the first six months of the year. 1.6 million videos posted by British users every single day

This is an interesting exchange: Damian Green has identified an issue around data handling versus GDPR, claiming it's illegal. "Your understanding of complexity of EU law is not quite right," says TikTok's Theo Bertram

Also the Irish data centre has been brought forward a year according to Theo Bertram just now - from 2021 EU data will be stored in the EU, compared to 2022

Another new number! There are 363 content moderators in the UK, out of 800 total TikTok employees in the country

LOL amazing, some MP just confused a MAC address with an Apple Mac. Can we get a new committee please?

God give me the confidence of an MP who confuses a MAC address and an Apple Mac then doubles down with a follow up question

OH MY GOD THE MASSIVE BELL SECONDS AFTER. This sums up this shitshow of the DCMS committee hearing into TikTok

The weird MP who can't understand the difference between a MAC address and an Apple Mac just accidentally hit on something that is an issue, which is that UK legislation on content takedown isn't as strong as Germany. TikTok has 85 moderators there

Lol strong, specific opening question from Kevin Brennan: "How many of your videos contain music?"

That's 105 minutes of my life I won't ever get back

Both @YuanfenYang and @ruima bringing some useful (much needed) insights into the DCMS commitee hearing

Dipped back into the DCMS committee hearing to hear an MP say to @ruima, who has years of experience as an investment banker, "If you were an investment banker". Kind of sums everything up.

I'm told that Theo Bertram misspoke here and the Irish data centre is still opening in 2022