TikTok scrambles to remove suicide video clips

LONDON —  TikTok says it’s working to remove videos of a man apparently taking his own life and banning users who keep trying to spread the clips on the popular social media platform.

It’s the latest example of the ongoing struggle by big tech companies to police their platforms for harmful content amid increasing pressure from regulators.

The video was originally livestreamed on Facebook before being circulated on other platforms including TikTok, the company said.

It did not give more details about the video, but news reports say it has been circulating on TikTok since Sunday and shows a man killing himself.

“Our systems, together with our moderation teams, have been detecting and blocking these clips for violating our policies against content that displays, praises, glorifies, or promotes suicide,” TikTok said in a statement.

“We are banning accounts that repeatedly try to upload clips,” the company said, adding that it appreciated users who reported the content.

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President Trump has ordered Tiktok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, to sell its U.S. operations over concerns about cyber-security and censorship. The platform has become extremely popular with teens largely because of the company’s algorithms, which decide what videos users see without first requiring them to follow other users or specify their preferences.

Facebook said it removed the original video last month on the day it was streamed and has “used automation technology to remove copies and uploads since that time.”

Social media users have been warning others about the clips, saying that some have been edited to include shots of cats to trick viewers. Others are posting a screenshot of the video’s beginning to make people aware of what clips to avoid.