KUALA LUMPUR (May 2): TikTok Shop invested more than US$400 million (RM1.91 billion) on platform safety by investing in tools and technologies to process products before and after the content reaches the virtual shelves, on top of building up a team of 7,500 people to handle the task, according to its first ever TikTok Shop Safety Report.

The report highlights key investment and actions the social media giant’s marketplace have taken to protect the interests of its stakeholders from July to December last year.

A part of this is utilising machine learning and algorithms to detect fraud, copyright infringement and unsafe or dangerous content that violates the platform’s policies or infringes upon intellectual property rights of brands and other holders.

After detection, the possible offender is put under review by a TikTok Shop’s internal team of investigators, and if the content does not follow their policy it is removed from the platform.

This process included sellers providing documentation verifying their identity, business type and eligibility to operate their business, with all of these documentations being screened to ensure it complies with TikTok Shops’ regulation and policy.

Once approved, the sellers are placed on an undisclosed probation period, given time to learn the rules of the platform, with policies being made transparent, maintained and updated to cover issues like counterfeits, illegal activity and prohibited or restricted products in accordance to regional needs and laws.

TikTok Shops' regional policies are laid out for sellers on their TikTok Academy hub.

With this new technology and team in place assessing every applicant to join the marketplace, the platform on-boarded more than six million sellers, declined two million seller account registrations and 37 million product listing attempts due to not meeting policy requirements.

The report also listed the deactivation of one million seller accounts and the e-commerce feature removed from 500,000 creators due to policy violations while handling more than 68,000 takedown notices from brand owners.

"We have invested heavily in tools, technology and people to build a shopping experience that people can trust, and we will continue to develop our policies, processes and enforcement so that people can enjoy a safe experience when they use TikTok Shop," said Nur Azre, head of partnership at TikTok Shop.