TikTok’s Delete Button Is Working Overtime in MENA

TikTok has published its Q2 2025 Community Guidelines Enforcement Report for the Middle East and North Africa, and the numbers are… not small. From April to June 2025, nearly 19 million videos were removed across six MENA markets for breaking the platform’s rules, with a strong focus on catching harmful content before users even see it. 

The report also shows how aggressively TikTok is now moderating LIVE streams, plus how many decisions were reversed after users appealed. For people in the UAE who scroll, stream or create on TikTok every day, this is a useful snapshot of how closely the platform is being policed.

Nearly 19 million videos removed across MENA

TikTok is deleting a lot of content in the region, and fast.

• Total videos removed in MENA (Q2 2025): 18,998,721
• Region covered: Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Morocco
• Focus on harmful or rule-breaking content, including both short videos and LIVEs
• Most removals were proactive – spotted by TikTok before users reported them

These numbers show the sheer scale of moderation needed to keep feeds clean across a massive, fast-growing user base. TikTok says this is all tied to its Community Guidelines, which set out what’s not allowed on the platform, from hate and harassment to explicit or dangerous content. 

Each country has its own breakdown, but the big picture is simple: millions of posts never made it past moderation, and most were caught by systems (and teams) that were looking for them, not waiting for complaints.

If you’re curious how this compares to earlier in the year, we’ve already covered TikTok’s Q1 2025 MENA enforcement figures in detail in this previous breakdown on tbreak.

What the numbers look like in the UAE

For users in the UAE, the report gives a clear view of how strict moderation has become.

• Videos removed in the UAE (Q2 2025): 1,050,943
• Proactive removals: 98.9%
• Removed within 24 hours: 95.8%
• LIVE enforcement: 105,985 LIVE hosts banned; 192,482 livestreams interrupted

In plain terms, almost all harmful videos in the UAE were detected before users had to flag them, and nearly all violative content that did get posted was pulled down within a day. 

For creators, that means your content needs to be safely within the rules, especially if you stream LIVE. For everyday users, it means a lower chance of running into obviously harmful content on your For You page – though no system is perfect, and some harmful content may slip through before being removed.

LIVE streams: more bans, more takedowns

Short videos are one thing, but LIVE streams are a different beast – they’re real-time, unpredictable and harder to control. TikTok’s Q2 2025 report makes it clear that LIVE is now a major enforcement focus.

• Globally, TikTok stopped more than 36.7 million violative LIVE sessions in Q2 2025
• That’s a 93% increase compared to the 19 million stopped the previous quarter
• In Egypt, UAE, Iraq, Lebanon, and Morocco, TikTok:
  • Banned 1,331,424 LIVE hosts
  • Interrupted 2,999,268 livestreams for breaking the rules
• Separate to content rules, TikTok also enforced its LIVE monetisation guidelines, taking action on:
  • 2,321,813 LIVE sessions
  • 1,040,356 LIVE creators worldwide

A lot of LIVE content is harmless – chatting, gaming, Q&As – but it’s also where risky behaviour often shows up first. TikTok’s systems are designed to cut off streams in progress if they cross the line, and in some cases, remove a host’s ability to earn money from LIVE if they keep breaking the rules. 

For creators, this means stricter expectations when money is involved. For viewers, it means fewer chances of stumbling into a rule-breaking stream that’s been allowed to run unchecked.

Country snapshots: Egypt, Saudi, Iraq, Morocco, Lebanon

Beyond the UAE, the report gives more detail on how enforcement looks across the rest of the covered MENA markets.

• Egypt
  • 2,930,606 videos removed
  • 99.6% proactive removals
  • 95.8% removed within 24 hours
  • 524,168 LIVE hosts banned; 1,189,411 LIVEs interrupted
• Saudi Arabia
  • 4,911,695 videos removed
  • 99.3% proactive removals
  • 89.3% removed within 24 hours
• Iraq
  • 8,316,646 videos removed – the highest in the group
  • 99.5% proactive removals
  • 92.3% removed within 24 hours
  • 589,637 LIVE hosts banned; 1,391,264 LIVEs disrupted
• Morocco
  • 721,029 videos removed
  • 99.2% proactive removals
  • 96.2% removed within 24 hours
  • 70,195 LIVE hosts banned; 134,652 LIVEs interrupted
• Lebanon
  • 1,064,802 videos removed
  • 99.4% proactive removals
  • 97.5% within 24 hours – highest 24-hour rate in the region
  • 41,439 LIVE hosts banned; 91,459 LIVEs disrupted

The differences in raw numbers mostly reflect the size and activity level of each market. But across the board, proactive moderation and rapid takedowns are the norm, not the exception. 

Appeals, restored videos, and how “fair” this is

Any automated or large-scale moderation system will make mistakes. TikTok’s report does include a check-and-balance: appeals and restored content.

• Iraq had the highest number of restored videos at 189,037
• Followed by:
  • Saudi Arabia: 157,249 restored
  • Egypt: 136,171 restored
  • Morocco: 39,503 restored
  • UAE: 39,116 restored
  • Lebanon: 22,488 restored

These are cases where users appealed a decision and TikTok agreed the original call was wrong, and put the videos back up. 

That doesn’t mean the system is perfect, but it does show that content decisions aren’t always final on the first try. For creators in the region, it’s a reminder: if you genuinely believe your content follows the rules, use the appeal tools instead of simply reposting the same video and hoping for better luck.

What this means for users and creators in MENA

Behind the numbers, TikTok says it relies on a hybrid model – thousands of trust and safety staff working alongside automated tools – to keep content in line with its Community Guidelines. The company also points to digital literacy campaigns, media partnerships, and community programmes in the region aimed at safer, more informed use of the app. 

For people in the UAE and wider MENA region, this all adds up to a few simple points:

• TikTok is aggressively moderating both short videos and LIVE streams
• Most harmful content is taken down before you ever see it
• Mistakes do happen, but appeals are part of the process
• Creators need to be extra careful with LIVE and monetised content

If you want to understand TikTok’s wider approach to safety beyond MENA, it’s worth checking TikTok’s official Safety and Transparency updates, which regularly include global policy changes and new wellbeing tools.

And if you just want to know which apps are chewing through your data while you scroll TikTok on 5G, that’s a whole other story – we broke that down in this guide to mobile data-hungry apps.

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