Gardaí join EU operation to counter extremist content on TikTok

A TikTok spokesperson said: "More than nine in 10 items of content we remove for violent extremism are proactively identified by TikTok and removed before it is reported — or viewed in most cases.”  File photo

Ireland took part in an operation co-ordinated by the EU targeting terrorist and violent extremist content on the popular social media platform TikTok.

More than 2,000 videos were flagged to the online giant that related to jihadism and violent right-wing extremism.

The operation was co-ordinated by Europol’s European Counter Terrorism Centre and its Internet Referral Unit and involved 10 member states, including Ireland and the UK.

A statement from Europol said: “On 28 September, a large-scale voluntary Referral Action Day between TikTok, Europol’s European Counter Terrorism Centre (ECTC) and 11 countries took place targeting suspected terrorist and violent extremist content online.

“In collaboration with the video-sharing platform TikTok, investigators from the participating countries, together with the ECTC’s European Union Internet Referral Unit (EU IRU), performed an exercise to detect material glorifying past terrorist attacks or terrorist perpetrators.” 

It said TikTok regularly publishes content removal statistics for violent extremism content in its quarterly transparency reports, and that their latest report published last week showed that TikTok proactively removed 95% of violent extremism content.

“As part of the joint exercise, some 2,145 pieces of content were assessed and flagged to TikTok for voluntary review against their terms of service,” it said. “Among the referred content were items linked to jihadism and violent right-wing extremism and terrorism, such as videos and memes.” 

The statement said the action was led by Spain and the EU IRU, in co-operation with law enforcement authorities from Czechia, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Malta, Portugal, Sweden and the UK.

Commenting, a TikTok spokesperson said: "This voluntary collaboration with Europol is part of our ongoing efforts to stamp out extremist content. More than nine in 10 items of content we remove for violent extremism are proactively identified by TikTok and removed before it is reported — or viewed in most cases.” 

Last week, TikTok revealed it shut down a network of accounts designed to spread disinformation and division in Ireland. This network contained 72 accounts with more than 94,000 followers.