MPs quiz TikTok on ‘violent sex’ videos

SOCIAL media giant TikTok failed to take down videos ‘glorifying’ sexual violence because it thought they were ‘jokey’, MPs were told.

The admission came from one of the bosses of the Chinese-owned firm during a grilling by the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee.

Theo Bertram, TikTok’s director of public policy for Europe, also admitted social media giants ‘have to do better’ to protect young users from harmful content.

He was questioned by Labour MP Alex Davies-Jones about a ‘disturbing TikTok trend’ in which users share short video clips ‘about violent sex’. She said the phenomenon involved users re-enacting scenes from 365 Days, an erotic movie, before uploading them.

Miss Davies-Jones said TikTok users had been uploading ‘footage of their own injuries’ following the re-enactments, which include men ‘putting their partners into fake chokeholds’.

Mr Bertram said: ‘When we first saw this content... what we saw in this instance was users creating videos that are jokey. But we were contacted by a charity set up to protect gender-based violence against students and they said to us... there’s a risk here this is normalising sexual violence.

‘So we took that on board and... started to remove those videos.’