TikTok says on ‘high alert’, ‘aggressively’ removing hate content post-GE15

Social media platform TikTok said yesterday it continues to be on “high alert”, after the online public brought up clips by youths on TikTok bringing up the May 13, 1969 racial riots and violence after the 15th general election.

In a statement, TikTok said it will also “aggressively remove” content that violated its community guidelines, including video, audio, livestream, images, comments, links, or other text.

“At TikTok, we have zero tolerance against any form of hate speech and violent extremism. As it relates to May 13 content, we quickly removed videos which were in violation of our Community Guidelines,” it said.

It also urged community members to use its inapp reporting function to immediately report any harmful content: by pressing and holding a video until a prompt appears for users to click ‘Report’.

“Since the lead-up to the elections, we have been in constant communication with the relevant bodies, including MCMC, about accounts that are involved in severe or repeated on-platform violations,” it added, referring to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.

On Monday, InspectorGeneral of Police Tan Sri Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani told social media users to stop misusing the platforms to spread content that is considered provocative in nature because it will cause public disturbances.

Social media users have pointed to TikTok posts warning about a possible repeat of the deadly May 13, 1969 race riots were found on TikTok with hundreds of thousands of views, most of them directed against supporters of Pakatan Harapan (PH).

Many of the videos also falsely alleged political dominance by DAP if PH forms the federal government, carried anti-Chinese messages, and openly threatened violence.

Some also questioned the religiosity of Malay-Muslims who voted for DAP, insinuating that no Muslim would ever vote for the party. — Malay Mail