The short-form video platform TikTok has been accused of allowing users who posted sexually explicit comments to remain on the platform which will call into question how safe the platform is for marketers and advertisers to promote products.

Hundreds of sexually explicit comments were found by the BBC in an in-depth investigation which were deleted by the platform, but most of the users who posted them were allowed to remain on the platform.

TikTok said that promoting a “safe and positive environment” remained the company’s top priority and that the issue of child protection was an “industry-wide challenge.”

TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is very much in its early days but has accepted advertising in the US from a number of brands and is already accepting revenue from in-app purchases.

See more: The industry needs to act together to fix brand safety

The company has grown extremely quickly and has around 500 million users around the world but it’s not known how many of these are in the UK. It sees Snapchat as one of its biggest rivals.

Jacob Dubbins, MD of Media Bounty and co-chair of the Conscious Advertising Network said that the news was “entirely predictable.”

TikTok recently partnered with Internet Matters to promote digital well-being for issues such as “getting too many DMs.”

The firm was fined $5.7 million by the FTC earlier this year for collecting information on children without their consent.