TikTok has temporarily disabled its late-night LIVE streaming feature in Nigeria following a surge in broadcasts featuring explicit sexual acts and other adult content. The restriction was announced on Monday through an in-app notification, with the company saying it is conducting an investigation to “ensure the platform remains safe and our community stays protected.”
The platform did not state how long the suspension will remain in place.
According to TikTok, Nigerian users had increasingly turned the LIVE feature into a hub for sexually explicit entertainment, with late-night sessions drawing thousands of viewers as some hosts engaged in sexual intercourse or performed erotic acts in exchange for virtual gifts. Others coordinated adult-themed “shows” designed to exploit the app’s monetisation system.
At TikTok’s West Africa Safety Summit in Dakar, Senegal, the company revealed that in the second quarter of 2025 it issued warnings and demonetisation penalties to more than 2.3 million LIVE sessions and over one million creators for violating monetisation rules. Within the same period, 49,512 Nigerian LIVE sessions were banned—placing Nigeria among the highest-enforcement markets in the region.
Under the new restrictions, Nigerian users will not be able to host or view LIVE sessions during late-night hours, the period identified as most associated with the spike in prohibited content. TikTok said the measure is temporary and part of a broader review of safety and enforcement practices in the country, noting that similar interventions have been introduced in other regions facing comparable issues.
Reactions among users have been mixed. Some welcomed the move as necessary to curb exploitation and abuse, while others argued that the ban hurts legitimate creators who rely on late-night streams for income. One user said the restriction was overdue, citing the prevalence of explicit broadcasts. Another lamented the impact on earnings, saying TikTok had taken away their “atije atimu”—a Yoruba expression meaning livelihood.
