Image via digitalcrew.com.au //
A PR nightmare…
It’s fair to say that TikTok is impossible to escape right now, with millions of users all around the world taking to the app to film themselves doing stunts, dancing to certain songs or just doing crazy stuff in general. But as of late, it’s definitely copped some bad publicity, with singer Lizzo calling out the platform for removing videos of her in bathing suits. Just a random mistake? Looks like it wasn’t, as internal documents regarding the censoring of specific types of users have leaked into the world.
NEW: Leaked internal TikTok documents show the company suppressed videos from “ugly,” disabled, overweight, and poor people for the express purpose of retaining new users and growing the app https://t.co/7lsTr0y0QW pic.twitter.com/w7J4LR8QHA
— Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) March 16, 2020
As the document states, users with “Abnormal body shape, chubby, have obvious beer belly, obese or too thin” or “Ugly facial looks” were taken off the platform, justifying it by saying “the video will be much less attractive, not worthy to recommending to new users”.
The Chinese company has also allegedly censored political content in the past, and to ban users who “Harmed national honour”. On top of this, moderators have been told to hide videos if they show “Rural poverty or slums” which is straight up insane. Pretty much any content that could be considered critical of the Communist Party of China has been removed in the past, especially content that references the 1989 Tianmen Square protests.
When @netzpolitik_org reported on similar guidelines last year, TikTok claimed these rules were an “anti-bullying” measure. They tried to tell us he same thing, despite the obvious, explicit rationale of growing the app. There is ZERO mention of bullying in this doc.
— Sam Biddle (@samfbiddle) March 16, 2020
Wild stuff, but according to additional tweet by Sam Biddle, the person that seems to have brought us the internal documents, TikTok claimed these rules were an “Anti-bullying” measure when confronted last year, however, as he’s pointed out, there’s literally no mention of bullying in the guidelines.
