TikTok has announced the removal of videos containing false information about the election that were published on two prominent accounts known for supporting the Republican party: The Republican Hype House and The Republican Boys. These accounts, which are popular among young, conservative individuals, collectively have over one million followers and possess the capacity to extend their reach through methods like hashtags, shares, and the platform’s recommendation system.

The videos in question, which asserted claims of “election fraud,” were initially identified by Taylor Lorenz, a journalist with The New York Times.

While TikTok had previously stated its commitment to addressing election-related misinformation on its platform, the extent to which it would moderate video content in situations like this was initially uncertain. However, the company responded swiftly by removing the contested videos, confirming the action in response to Lorenz’s post within an hour.

In a statement to TechCrunch, TikTok also verified that the videos were removed because they violated the platform’s guidelines regarding deceptive information, but declined to provide additional details regarding the decision.

This is not the first instance of The Republican Hype House facing consequences from TikTok for disseminating political misinformation. In August, Media Matters reported that the account, along with another conservative TikTok account, shared a video clip of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden that had been deceptively edited. The TikTok account was also previously linked to the spread of a conspiracy theory concerning the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement.

As previously reported by TechCrunch, the closely contested U.S. election has created a significant challenge for social media platforms in their efforts to combat misinformation and conspiracy theories. On platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and now TikTok, false information can rapidly become widespread, potentially reaching vast numbers of users before the platforms can take action.

Today, Twitter has already placed warning labels on multiple posts made by President Trump due to its policies concerning election-related misinformation. Similarly, Facebook has labeled Trump’s posts and displayed notifications within the app to remind users that the election results were still preliminary while votes were being tallied.

The U.S. elections represent one of the initial major tests of TikTok’s capacity to effectively enforce its policies against misinformation.

It is worth noting that TikTok’s future operations within the U.S. could also be influenced by the outcome of the election and whether President Trump – who previously attempted to ban the Chinese-owned video app citing national security concerns – remains in office once all votes have been counted.