TikTok sister app Helo has removed 50 lakh posts and 1.6 lakh accounts for violating guidelines

TikTok sister app Helo said it has removed about 1.6 lakh accounts and 50 lakh posts from its platform over the last 10 months after they were found to be violating its guidelines. Helo is operated by China's ByteDance, which also owns TikTok.

"We started Helo last year in June with the aim of providing users of Indian languages a platform to connect and communicate in a safe environment. It is an India-focussed app and we have seen a strong adoption not only in the country but also among the Indian diaspora in the US, Malaysia, Nepal and other countries," Helo's head of content operations Shyamanga Barooah said.

Currently, Helo has about 40 million users and supports 14 Indian languages.

"User safety is a prime focus for us. In the last 10 months, we have taken down 1.6 lakh accounts and about five million posts that were found to be violating our community guidelines," he said.

When asked whether the removed content was political in nature, Barooah said: "political-centric fake content was 0.07 per cent of the total content that was removed, it was very minuscule".

He said users are sharing content across the spectrum like hyperlocal news and couplets, while celebrities and influencers are using the platform to connect to their audience in various Indian languages like Telegu, Kannada and Gujarati among others.

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Helo is accused of interfering with Indian elections in the past. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had reportedly filed a complaint against Helo app to Election Commission (EC) citing Facebook's crackdown on 11,000 advertisements from Helo.

Helo was reportedly placing advertisements featuring doctored images of politicians with sensationalised text layered on top of it. However, ByteDance denied allegations of election interference.

Earlier, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) economic wing Swadeshi Jagran Manch demanded a ban on several Chinese apps including TikTok and Helo over concerns of promoting anti-national activities.

Last year, an investigation revealed that China-made apps like as ShareChat and Helo were filled with misinformation and political propaganda.

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(With PTI inputs)