Concerns are being raised that a growing number of TikTok accounts are allegedly hiding pornographic material in “gameplay” clips of Clash Royale, a real-time strategy mobile game.
The situation first appeared to be publicly flagged on Feb. 15 on Twitter, with one user claiming that they came across a video from “Clash Royale TikTok” showing “cp,” an acronym used to indicate child pornography—or as activists call it, “child sexual abuse material” (CSAM).
Two days later, TikTok commentator Noah Carter posted a video explaining how these TikTok accounts were purportedly doing this. Carter is a verified creator with 4 million followers that posts videos discussing trends and controversies on the platform.
He explained: “The way they get away with this is that they make their videos seem like it’s just normal Clash Royale gameplay, and then during the video they will show porn that’s normally transparent and sort of in the middle of the video.”
As shown by Carter in the background of his TikTok, many of these videos are identifiable as having on-screen text with phrases like, “just normal Clash Royale gameplay.”
That same day, Carter also posted a second video highlighting a specific Clash Royale account that was purportedly hiding CSAM in these type of videos. Allegedly, this account has since been removed, but recent comments on Carter’s TikTok tagged dozens of live accounts which they allege were continuing to post hidden pornography—including CSAM.
In comments posted in the last couple of days, several users have also claimed that the first removed account made a new TikTok profile and was continuing to hide CSAM in gameplay videos, tagging several live TikTok handles under similar aliases to the original account under Carter’s video.
In a third TikTok posted Feb. 21, Carter said the number of Clash Royale accounts posting TikToks is “one of the biggest problems on all of TikTok.”
He continued, “When I made my first video on this, I knew of maybe three accounts that posted stuff like this, but apparently there are literally hundreds of accounts that do this. And some of these accounts have videos that clearly show porn that have millions of views.”
Carter did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via Instagram and TikTok direct message.
While the distribution of adult content isn’t illegal, possessing, distributing, and receiving CSAM is a federal crime in the US. According to TikTok’s terms of service, where the minimum user age is 13, users are prohibited from posting content that is “obscene, pornographic, pedophilic” or “harms minors in any way.”
However, TikTok tags #clashroyale and #clashtok have over 50 billion views combined, and at the time of writing, a Daily Dot reporter found that when a user searches phrases related to “clash royale” on TikTok, videos which seem to match the description given Carter’s videos appear—with many of them having thousands of likes and views. The Daily Dot did not independently verify any claims of CSAM.
Several recent commenters on Carter’s TikToks also claimed that Clash Royale videos with hidden pornography on them were regularly showing up on their For You pages.
TikTok did not immediately respond to the Daily Dot’s request for comment via email.
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