TikTok fails to stop beheading video going viral

Footage of a girl dancing spliced with a highly graphic and disturbing video of a man being beheaded by a group of men in a bathroom went viral on TikTok.

The video had previously been present on gore sites for two years, with reports at the time of its initial discovery in 2019 alleging the victim was a 19-year-old Mexican man. 

Digital and human rights advocates argued TikTok's failure to detect and remove the video before it spread across its platform demonstrated the limitations of it's mostly automated content moderation system. 

TikTok said it 'quickly' removed the offending item. 

However, TikTok users continued to say long after the event that they were too scared to use the app lest they saw the beheading.