CONTENT RULES: Facebook, TikTok, YouTube delete millions profiles
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has stepped up its efforts to clean up the platform, announcing the removal of over 10 million fake profiles and 500,000 spam accounts in the first half of 2025.
The company said the action forms part of a broader crackdown on impersonation, copycat content, and fake engagement, all aimed at promoting originality and ensuring that genuine creators receive greater visibility.
According to Meta, the clampdown also targets accounts that recycle or repost content from others without permission or meaningful changes. Such accounts will not only lose access to monetisation tools but will also see their content reach reduced on Facebook feeds.
“We’re making progress. In the first half of 2025, we took action on around 500,000 accounts engaged in spammy behaviour or fake engagement. We also removed about 10 million profiles impersonating large content producers,” Meta said in a blog post on Monday.
The tech giant explained that repeatedly sharing unoriginal material, whether videos, photos, or text, undermines the platform by crowding out authentic voices and making it harder for fresh creators to break through.
To support genuine creators, Meta is introducing new tools that will link duplicated content back to the original post. The move is designed to surface authentic work and ensure the rightful creators get the credit they deserve.
“Pages and profiles that post mostly original content tend to enjoy wider distribution across Facebook. Simply stitching clips together or adding a watermark will no longer count as meaningful editing. Content that provides real value and tells an authentic story is likely to perform better,” Meta stated.
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The company also issued a warning against sharing watermarked content from other platforms, saying this could lead to penalties such as reduced reach or loss of monetisation opportunities.
As part of its update, Meta has added post-level insights to the Professional Dashboard, allowing content creators to track the performance of their posts. Creators can now also check their Support Home screen to see if they are at risk of facing restrictions on their posts or earnings.
YouTube too
Meanwhile, Google’s YouTube has announced a similar policy, saying it will no longer allow mass-produced or overly repetitive content to earn advertising revenue.
The update initially sparked confusion among users on social media, with some fearing it was a reversal of YouTube’s stance on AI-generated content. However, YouTube clarified that the new rules are not aimed at creators who use AI to enhance their storytelling.
“We welcome creators using AI tools to enhance their storytelling, and channels that use AI in their content remain eligible to monetise,” YouTube said in a statement.
Both platforms say the new rules are part of wider efforts to maintain content quality and protect creators in the evolving digital economy.
TikTok deletes over 3.6 million Nigerian videos
Meanwhile, TikTok has removed more than 3.6 million videos from its platform in Nigeria between January and March 2025 for breaching its Community Guidelines, representing a 50 per cent increase from the previous quarter.
This was disclosed in the platform’s Q1 2025 Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, which highlights TikTok’s commitment to keeping its online community safe, respectful, and trustworthy.
According to the report on Tuesday, TikTok achieved a proactive detection rate of 98.4 per cent, meaning most of the videos were removed before users reported them. About 92.1 per cent of the videos were taken down within 24 hours of being uploaded.
The platform said the removals represented a small fraction of the overall content posted by the Nigerian community during the period, stressing that the majority of content shared remained positive, educational, and entertaining.
As part of its regional enforcement actions, TikTok also removed 129 accounts in West Africa linked to covert operations in March 2025.
TikTok said it had intensified efforts to monitor LIVE broadcasts to ensure compliance with its rules. In the first quarter of 2025, the platform banned 42,196 LIVE rooms and interrupted 48,156 streams in Nigeria found to have violated its guidelines.
“LIVE content enforcement remains a priority as we continue to protect the integrity of real-time interactions on the platform,” the report stated.
Globally, TikTok removed over 211 million videos in Q1 2025, up from 153 million in the previous quarter. Of these, 184 million were removed through automation, with a global proactive detection rate of 99 per cent.
Despite the large-scale removals, TikTok said that harmful content accounted for less than one per cent of total uploads, underscoring its ongoing efforts to prioritise safety and well-being.
In June, TikTok Africa held the ‘My Kind of TikTok Digital Well-being Summit,’ bringing together experts, NGOs, creators, media, and industry leaders from across Sub-Saharan Africa to discuss ways of improving digital well-being on and beyond the platform.
TikTok Nigerian helpline
As part of new initiatives, TikTok announced the expansion of its in-app helpline to Nigeria, in partnership with Cece Yara, a child-focused non-profit organisation that supports youth safety. The helpline will provide expert assistance to young users dealing with issues like suicide, self-harm, hate, and harassment.
TikTok also named Dr. Olawale Ogunlana, popularly known as Doctor Wales, as its Digital Well-being Ambassador for Nigeria, joining a group of healthcare professionals in the WHO Fides Network.
Alongside these efforts, TikTok continues to encourage users to report harmful content and participate in its ongoing #SaferTogether campaign, aimed at fostering a respectful and secure online environment.
