In its latest transparency report, the ByteDance-owned company said it also received 500 total legal demands from governments. The bulk of the requests to remove videos came from the U.S. and India, the latter of which banned TikTok earlier this month. It removed 49 million total videos for assorted content violations, such as copyright infringement. (The Verge, TechCrunch)

Talking point: The short-video platform is being pulled into a serious geopolitical conflict between China and the U.S., in which the White House is threatening to ban TikTok for its ties to Beijing. A full ban would be difficult, but the U.S. government could have the app placed on its “entity list,” limiting its ability to work with U.S. companies. As a result, the app is now fighting to prove that it’s not beholden to the Chinese government. It’s long discouraged political content, going as far as dropping political advertising. It even led all social networks in pulling services from Hong Kong. But staying out of politics is getting harder, especially after some TikTok users took credit for a prank that reportedly inflated attendance numbers at President Donald Trump’s Tulsa rally last month. Today’s transparency report notably makes no mention of China, where a different version of TikTok, called Douyin, is available, and where its parent company is headquartered. (Although that may change.) TikTok spokesperson Hilary McQuaide told The Verge, “We have never provided user data to the Chinese government, nor would we do so if asked.”