Singapore Regulator Issues Letters of Caution to X and TikTok Over Content Moderation Failures
Singapore's IMDA found that X failed to detect child sexual exploitation material and TikTok failed to identify terrorism content, leading both platforms to receive regulatory cautions and enhanced supervision requirements.
What happened
The Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) found that X failed to proactively detect and remove child sexual exploitation and abuse material, with cases originating from, targeting or featuring Singapore users doubling to 73 in 2025 from 33 in 2024.
TikTok failed to accurately detect terrorism content, with 17 cases of terrorism content shared by Singapore-based accounts in 2025, mostly involving edited footage or audio related to transnational terrorist organisations. When these were user-reported, TikTok found the content did not violate its community guidelines, demonstrating inaccurate assessment of terrorism content.
Reported impact
Singapore users were exposed to child sexual exploitation and abuse material on X and terrorism content on TikTok due to failures in content moderation systems.
Index analysis
The failures occurred within automated content moderation systems that did not proactively identify harmful content and did not accurately assess user reports of terrorism content.
Governance controls
IMDA issued letters of caution to both platforms and placed them under enhanced supervision until the authority is satisfied that issues have been resolved. The platforms must provide regular status updates on rectification measures and demonstrate effectiveness in their next annual reports to IMDA, due on June 30. IMDA warned it may impose fines of up to $1 million under the Broadcasting Act if the companies fail to show improvement.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.