The Brazilian government denounced TikTok and demands explanations for the viralization of videos that incite violence against women

“The platform you have five days to report on measures to detect and repress misogynistic content,” said the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP) of Brazil this Tuesday afternoon, after hours later raising a official letter to the Brazilian branch of TikTokthe Chinese social network, to ask for explanations about methods of detecting, controlling and restricting gender violence content on the platform’s interface.

Specifically, the ministerial statement cited: “The videos showed young people simulating physical attacks (kicking, punching and stabbing) against mannequins representing womenaccompanied by messages that explicitly associated the violence with emotional rejection. The content, widely disseminated on the TikTok platform, motivated the opening of a investigation by the Federal Police (PF), initiated after a criminal complaint filed by the National Prosecutor’s Office for the Defense of Democracy (PNDD), linked to the Attorney General’s Office (AGU)”.

“The MJSP letter makes it clear that the obligation of the platform not limited to content removal already requested by the Federal Police. The ministry points out that internet application providers are civilly responsible of the immediate elimination of content that constitutes a crime against women, a category that expressly includes content that spreads hatred or aversion towards them. According to the document, the massive spread of this trend represents risks of systemic failure,” adds the Brazilian government.

In turn, the PF announced that it is investigating at least four profiles of that social network that were involved in the distribution of this content under the trend “Training in case she says no.” The State’s attorney warned that the videos could configure crimes of incitement to feminicidebodily injuries and psychological violence.

TikTok stated in a statement that the targeted posts were removed from the platform and that its team “is working to identify possible infringing content on this topic.”

The MJSP statement assured, in turn, that as of this Tuesday, “within a period of five consecutive days, TikTok Brazil must present information detailed information on the technical and organizational measures adopted for the proactive detection and removal of misogynistic content, including: operation of automated moderation systems; mechanisms of human review; trend monitoring emerging; and controls over the recommendation algorithm”.

Finally, “The platform must also present a risk assessment regarding the recurrence of this type of content and inform if the responsible profiles of its diffusion were monetized or received some type of financial compensation due to the reach generated”.