Donald Trump, Azealia Banks, and Wiley are all celebrities who have been permanently banned from social media platforms, for reasons spanning from harassment, copyright violations, to the spreading of fake news.
They join thousands of other social media users who are banned, or have their content removed, each year.
Some social media platforms release transparency reports, enabling a greater level of trust between the platforms and their users. These reports detail user bans, content deletions, and more. Online experts at Reboot Digital PR Agency have analyses these reports to reveal which social media platforms have had the biggest increase in content violations.
The results
Instagram is the social media platform with the biggest year-on-year increase of content removal. Instagram has only increased in popularity over the years, and the rise of influencers means it shows no sign of slowing its growth. Instagram has shown an increase in the number of posts removed by 427% (106 405 100).
In second place is YouTube, with an increase of 135% for removed content in 2020. YouTube further broke down its removed content by country, to reveal that the UK has seen the eighth largest increase in YouTube content removal at 135%, while the US ranks 28th.
One of the biggest contributors to content demonetisation and removal from social media platforms, especially in the case of influencers, is copyright violations.
Following in third place is TikTok, with nearly 50-million pieces of unique content being removed in 2019, compared to almost 105-million in 2020 – an increase of 112%.
Twitter has shown the smallest increase in removed content, at only 0,65%. In addition, over 20 blue-ticked accounts have already been permanently banned since the start of 2021.
Meanwhile Facebook has shown a decrease in the volume of removed content – the largest of all social media platforms analysed, at 21%. Approximately 3-billion fewer pieces of content were removed in 2020 (12 433 370 000) compared to 2019 (15 675 330 000).