TikTok removed more than 15.5 million videos across eight MENA markets during the first three months of 2026, offering another indication of the enormous moderation challenge facing platforms operating at the scale of modern social media.
According to TikTok’s Q1 2026 Community Guidelines Enforcement Report, 15,519,240 videos were removed across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, Iraq, Morocco, Lebanon and Sudan between January and March. The figures cover content judged to have violated TikTok’s Community Guidelines, although raw removal numbers alone do not indicate whether harmful content is becoming more prevalent or simply being detected more effectively.
Iraq accounted for the largest share, with 5,253,566 videos removed, followed by Egypt with 3,612,773 and Saudi Arabia with 2,811,302. Sudan recorded 1,382,832 removals, while Lebanon reached 926,006. The UAE, Morocco and Oman recorded 752,214, 530,652 and 249,895 removals respectively.
TikTok says automated detection is catching the overwhelming majority of violating content before users report it. Proactive removal rates across the eight markets ranged from 98% in the UAE to 99.9% in Sudan. The percentage removed within 24 hours ranged from 88.9% in the UAE to 98% in Sudan.
Those impressive percentages also make the appeals process important. Moderation systems operating at this volume inevitably need mechanisms for correcting decisions. Across the eight markets, hundreds of thousands of videos were restored following successful appeals. Iraq recorded 157,124 restorations, while Saudi Arabia and Egypt saw 150,916 and 146,417 respectively.
Enforcement extends beyond conventional video uploads. TikTok says it interrupted 3,077,164 livestreams and banned 530,510 LIVE hosts across the same MENA markets during the quarter. Iraq again recorded the largest figures, with more than 1.14 million livestreams interrupted and 186,997 hosts banned.
Globally, TikTok suspended 50,791,858 LIVE sessions during Q1, up approximately 18.6% from 42,822,827 in Q4 2025. Another 58,207,389 LIVE sessions received warnings or were demonetized, according to the company.
Age enforcement remains another major part of the platform’s moderation operation. TikTok removed 25,764,372 accounts globally that it suspected belonged to users under 13, alongside 86,288,705 fake accounts. The scale illustrates why automated moderation has become unavoidable for major social platforms, while simultaneously raising questions about accuracy and false positives.
TikTok’s numbers provide useful visibility into enforcement, but they largely measure actions taken rather than the overall effectiveness of platform safety. Removal rates can show how quickly moderation systems respond; they cannot by themselves reveal how much violating material escapes detection or how long users are exposed to it.
With tens of millions of accounts, videos and livestreams receiving enforcement action in a single quarter, TikTok’s latest report demonstrates both the reach of its moderation machinery and the scale of the problem that machinery is being asked to manage.
