TikTok claims to have taken down 10,442 videos that incited violence, terrorism and disinformation during the Bolsonarist attacks on January 8 and in the days after. It is the only company, so far, that has released internal data about the attacks. In a document delivered to the TSE (Supreme Electoral Court), the application claimed to have removed 1,304 videos that violated its policy of violent extremism (which includes incitement to violence and terrorism), 5,519 that violated the guideline of "disinformation with risks of harm in the real world". " and 3,614 content that broke the rules on electoral disinformation. The period accounted for was from January 8 to 15. According to TikTok, only 5 URLs were removed due to demands from STF (Federal Supreme Court) in the period.
Authorities did not request data on January 8, but the circumstance prompted the government to accelerate discussions on regulating platforms in Brazil. A proposal for a provisional measure to curb the circulation of anti-democratic content was even prepared at the Ministry of Justice. It must now advance under another format. A recent report by researchers in the field has pointed out that short video apps, such as TikTok and Kwai, helped to exacerbate disinformation in the 2022 election, in part due to the scale of virality of these contents. When questioned, Kwai stated that the company "will not be able to disclose these numbers".
Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) and YouTube did not release data on January 8, only on the electoral process. Telegram and Twitter did not comment.
Translated by Cassy Dias