TikTok will remove videos of Trump inciting the Capitol mob, but riot footage and misinformation are still spreading on the platform

• TikTok will remove videos of President Trump's speeches inciting violence at the Capitol, TechCrunch first reported.
• The platform is also restricting certain hashtags including #stormthecapitol and #patriotparty.
• Certain videos that Insider viewed on TikTok, that were not from news organizations nor condemning the violence, show footage from the Capitol on Wednesday.
• One other that Insider viewed repeated a baseless claim that Antifa was part of storming the Capitol.

TikTok will remove videos of President Trump's speeches inciting the mob at the Capitol and reiterating false claims about the integrity of the election, saying that they violate its misinformation policy, TechCrunch first reported. Additionally, the company will redirect hashtags including #stormthecapitol and #patriotparty to the platform's Community Guidelines in order to reduce the visibility of content associated with them.

President Trump himself does not have a TikTok account, given that he led an effort to ban the app in the United States earlier this year.

Other platforms, notably Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have banned the video in which President Trump called rioters "very special" while asking them to go home. Twitter first restricted the video but required President Trump to delete it along with two other tweets that violated the platform's rules in order to regain access to his account. Facebook suspended the President through the end of his Presidency.

"Hateful behavior and violence have no place on TikTok," a TikTok spokesperson told Insider when reached for comment. "Content or accounts that seek to incite, glorify, or promote violence violate our Community Guidelines and will be removed."

There are some exceptions. Instances of the video will be allowed to remain on the platform if they're categorized as "counter speech" that combats misinformation - for instance, if they feature a creator presenting factual information to counter the false claims that President Trump makes in the video.

TikTok is also allowing some videos of the violence at the Capitol to remain on the platform - videos condemning the violence or that are documentary or news footage may be allowed to remain. The platform is also applying opt-in viewing screens on some content that may be newsworthy but graphic.

Insider viewed several videos that don't fit those criteria, but that do show footage of the mob at the Capitol, on TikTok. Some that Insider viewed included prompts for information on the United States elections. Others appear to show members of the mob clashing with police, or footage of a Capitol police officer running from a pro-Trump mob.

TechCrunch reported that it had seen several videos of a woman being shot dead at the Capitol surface on the platform before quickly disappearing, saying that it was unclear whether TikTok had removed the videos or if the original posters had. Insider viewed one video of the incident that had been up on the platform for at least a day, but that disappeared after Insider reached out to TikTok for comment. It's also unclear whether TikTok or the original poster removed it.

Graphic content aside, TikTok's Community Guidelines do not allow videos that incite, glorify, or promote violence. TechCrunch reported that such videos will be removed as TikTok identifies them through user reports and automation, and TikTok's safety team is investigating and removing content that violates the platform's guidelines.

Insider viewed two videos from a user with 15,000 followers on the platform that attempted to justify the violence that took place at the Capitol. In one, the user made an evidence-free claim that "Antifa was there" during the storming of the Capitol, a false theory that some prominent conservatives are peddling, and also argued that the "storming of the Capitol was absolutely justified."

Another video of his was labeled with a TikTok safety warning. "The founding of this country was rife with protest, and yes, the threat of violence. This needs to happen," he said, referring to the storming of the Capitol.

The user's account was removed for Community Guidelines violations after Insider reached TikTok for comment.