TikTok has deepened its engagement with regional stakeholders as it hosted its first West Africa Safety Summit in Dakar, Senegal, in partnership with AfricTivistes. The gathering brought together government officials, policy experts, regulators, media, NGOs, and industry leaders from countries including Nigeria, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Ethiopia to discuss safer digital practices and region-specific content moderation challenges.
Speaking at the event, TikTok’s Outreach and Partnerships Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa, Duduzile Mkhize, reaffirmed the platform’s commitment to enhancing user protections through collaboration and informed policy development.
“While global, we remain hyper-local in our everyday efforts,” Mkhize said. “Only through insights sharing and working closely with policymakers and regional partners can we prevent a fragmented and insecure digital environment. United action is vital in ensuring a safe space for our community to discover, create and connect responsibly.”
Senegalese digital specialist and AfricTivistes co-founder, Aisha Dabo, also highlighted the importance of African representation in global digital policy discussions. Dabo, who sits on TikTok’s Sub-Saharan Africa Safety Advisory Council, noted that local expertise plays a crucial role in shaping meaningful safety frameworks.
“This summit is an opportunity to highlight African-led solutions to digital challenges and ensure that our regional realities are reflected in global safety conversations,” she said. “Building an inclusive, open and secure internet is essential for the continent’s digital future.”
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Robust Enforcement and Safety Standards
TikTok’s latest Community Guidelines Enforcement Report shows the platform’s combined use of advanced technology and human content moderation teams to swiftly detect and remove harmful material. Since January 2024, more than 34 million videos have been removed across West Africa — representing an average of 0.6% of all content published in the region.
Between April and June 2025 alone, enforcement actions led to 8.3 million video removals, with 87% taken down through automated detection.
The platform also disclosed that in March 2025, it disrupted a covert influence network of 129 accounts operating from Togo, which sought to manipulate political discourse in West Africa and France.
In Senegal, over 2.5 million videos have been removed between Q1 2024 and Q2 2025, alongside the interruption of 16,000 TikTok LIVE sessions during the period.
Globally, TikTok removed 189 million videos in the second quarter of 2025, accounting for 0.7% of uploaded content. Of these, 99.1% were proactively detected, while 163.9 million were removed using AI-driven systems. The platform also deleted over 76 million fake accounts, along with 25.9 million suspected underage accounts.
LIVE Monetization Enforcement
For the first time, TikTok also released data on the enforcement of its LIVE monetization policies. In Q2 2025, action was taken against 2.32 million LIVE sessions and over 1 million creators for violating LIVE monetization guidelines. Most penalties came in the form of warnings, aimed at educating creators on compliance and responsible engagement.
TikTok says its evolving approach blends advanced automated systems with skilled safety teams to protect digital integrity and curb the spread of misinformation, hate speech and other harmful content.
For more details, users can visit the platform’s Safety Centre.