TikTok removes 380,000 videos in US for hate content

TikTok has pulled down more than 380,000 videos in the US this year as part of a mission to "eliminate hate" on the platform.

TikTok also banned some 1,300 accounts for breaking rules against hateful content or behaviour, and deleted 64,000 comments on similar grounds, it said on Thursday.

TikTok US head of safety Eric Han's overview of what TikTok is doing to combat hate comes as the app defends itself against what it calls "rumours and misinformation" about its links to the Chinese government.

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US President Donald Trump has issued executive orders giving TikTok parent ByteDance, which is based in China, deadlines to stop running the app in the US and divest TikTok. He has claimed TikTok could be used by China to track the locations of federal employees, build dossiers on users for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.

US user data however is stored in this country, with a backup in Singapore, according to TikTok.

Han on Thursday outlined rules and actions being taken to make it more difficult to find threatening, violent, or dehumanizing content on TikTok.

TikTok has a zero-tolerance stance against accounts linked to white nationalism, male supremacy, anti-Semitism and "other hate-based ideologies," Han said.

The US leader early this month also ordered a ban on the messaging app WeChat, which is used extensively in China.

China meanwhile has slammed Washington for using "digital gunboat diplomacy" in the TikTok case.

US technology firms Microsoft and Oracle are reported to be looking into the potential of buying TikTok.