There is also bullying and hate speech on the TikTok social network. With the Network Enforcement Act, however, the operator of the video app is primarily taking action against content that appears to have a political connection. According to a published report, the company rarely reacts to allegations of insult.

Tik Tok app reportedly under national security review

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In the opinion of TikTok, 50 videos or comments violated the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) ​​in the second half of 2019. That emerged from the first transparency report that the company released. It is noticeable that TikTok has mainly deleted or blocked content for people in Germany who seem to have a political connection.

The video app, which is consistently apolitical, is the fastest growing social network in the world: it has now been installed 1.5 billion times. In Germany, 5.5 million people should use them at least once a month. This emerges from an internal presentation published by the marketing magazine Digiday in November. TikTok itself does not publish user numbers.

If this scale is right, TikTok would not only become serious competition for market giants like Instagram. It would also have long come under the obligations of the NetzDG. This law is intended to combat criminal content such as hate speech online and obliges platforms with more than two million users to take special measures.

NetzDG notification in the app

TikTok has already implemented such a requirement – the possibility of reporting criminal content on the platform. If you want to report a specific video and are logged in to the social network, you can now do so with just a few clicks directly from the app.

TikTok offers as a reason for reporting: “falls under the NetzDG”. As a result, users have to choose which criminal offense is involved, such as defamation or terrorism. It works similarly on Facebook or Twitter.

In the past year, such a report was only possible using a NetzDG form on the homepage. In fact, it was difficult to access for many users, because TikTok is mainly used as a mobile app on smartphones.

From July to December, two-thirds of the reports according to the NetzDG were probably due to users, according to the report, and a third to complain offices. The total number is 1050, which is above the 665 that Instagram has announced.