TikTok Pulled Half a Million Videos in Kenya—Most Before Anyone Watched
TikTok’s moderation tools are evolving fast, but so are the challenges of keeping up with Kenya’s growing digital crowd.
TikTok doesn’t sleep. At least not when it comes to moderating what shows up on your feed.
Between January and March this year, the platform removed more than 450,000 videos in Kenya alone, most of them flagged and taken down before anyone had the chance to watch. According to TikTok’s Q1 2025 enforcement report, 92.1% were removed before being viewed, and 94.3% disappeared within 24 hours of being posted.
That’s not a small feat. It speaks to how much content is flowing through the app, and how much effort it now takes to keep that content in check.
Over the same period, TikTok banned 43,000 accounts in Kenya, all for breaking community guidelines. The violations weren’t spelled out, but the usual suspects are likely: hate speech, misinformation, dangerous challenges, and graphic material that slips through the cracks.
LIVE Streams Face Tighter Scrutiny
One part of TikTok that’s always walked a fine line is its LIVE feature. In the first three months of 2025, the company shut down 19 million LIVE rooms globally—a 50% increase from the previous quarter.
But that stat doesn’t necessarily mean more people are breaking the rules. TikTok says its moderation systems have simply gotten better at catching violations in real-time. The fact that the number of appeals hasn’t gone up supports that claim.
It’s also now harder to make money from LIVE videos. The platform has updated its LIVE monetisation guidelines, spelling out which types of content can earn income. That likely means fewer grey areas—and fewer loopholes for questionable creators to exploit.
Mental Health Gets a Local Touch
Not all of TikTok’s updates are about policing. Some are about support.
In a new step for mental health access in Kenya, TikTok has partnered with Childline Kenya to offer in-app help. If a young person reports something related to suicide, self-harm, harassment, or hate, they’ll now be connected to local helplines directly within the app. No searching. No waiting.
Another collaboration—with local mental health group Mental360—is focused on building relevant, evidence-based mental health content tailored for Kenyan users. The idea is to fill feeds with something more thoughtful: awareness, education, and honest conversations.
As part of that push, TikTok named Dr. Claire Kinuthia, a familiar face online, as one of its African Mental Health Ambassadors. Her role is to help steer the conversation and offer a voice people can trust.
A Platform That Wants to Be Safer—With Your Help
TikTok is a massive platform trying to walk a tightrope, encouraging creativity while keeping toxicity out. The tools it’s building are part of that, but so is the message it’s sending to users.
At the end of the report, there’s a quiet call to action: report what you see. If something feels wrong, say something. The platform is leaning on its community to keep things safe, not just its algorithms.
In Kenya, where internet access keeps expanding and more young people are spending time online, that shared responsibility matters. The tools are there. The partnerships are forming. What happens next depends on how willing people are to use them.
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