- TikTok publicly apologized to a 17-year-old teenage girl who was suspended from the platform shortly after posting a series of videos condemning China's oppression of the Uighur Muslims.
- Feroza Aziz remains unconvinced by TikTok's apology, saying she believes TikTok is helping China censor politically sensitive content.
- TikTok is owned by a Chinese company. Tech firms in China often adhere to the Communist Party's demands to censor politically sensitive content.
- TikTok has repeatedly denied censoring or demoting politically controversial content, and tried to emphasize its fun and lighthearted videos instead. It's not doing a great job.
- $4.
TikTok's catastrophic public-relations fallout over its suspension of a teen girl who posted anti-China videos has shown that it's almost impossible to run a viral social-media platform while following Beijing's rules.
On Wednesday, the video-streaming app $4 to 17-year-old Feroza Aziz, whose $4 after she posted a series of viral videos condemning China's mass surveillance and detention of $4.
TikTok has repeatedly denied suspending Aziz over the anti-China clips, claiming she was suspended for posting a video featuring the terrorist Osama bin Laden on a previous account.
That video $4, with bin Laden's image added as part of "dark humor" at the end, Aziz told Business Insider on Wednesday.
$4, saying she thinks she was punished for standing up to China instead.
The inherent difficulty of running a social media platform according to China's rules
The entire episode has brought to light the inherent difficulty of running a viral social-media platform while being under China's watchful eye.
TikTok, which is run by Chinese company ByteDance, has exploded in popularity since it launched in 2017, $4 and outperforming Instagram in app downloads this year.
It is mainly popular among teens, who create and share content that mostly involve memes, dances, and lip-syncing.
Simultaneously, it has faced mounting criticism and concern over its links to the Chinese government, which often compels domestic tech companies to censor content.
TikTok's Chinese counterpart, Douyin - which does not share the same content or userbase as TikTok - has routinely purged anti-China videos from its platform.
Leaked internal instructions show China's influence
TikTok, which is based in California, has repeatedly tried to distance itself from its Chinese links. ByteDance is $4 TikTok from much of its Chinese operations.
But a series of leaked internal instructions, published by multiple news outlets in recent months, show TikTok moderators being told to remove or demote politically and culturally sensitive posts. Here's a rundown of those reports:
- In September, $4 on leaked internal guidelines instructing moderators to censor content that criticize controversial topics about China, such as its $4.
- Moderators were also told to $4 in conservative countries, like Turkey, $4.
- TikTok confirmed the guidelines in both reports, but said they were no longer in use and that "we have since made significant progress in establishing a more robust localized approach."
- On November 5, six former TikTok employees based in the US $4 that moderators in China told them to censor "culturally problematic" videos showing vaping, "heavy kissing and more suggestive dance moves," and "social political topics."
- TikTok has said that it doesn't censor political content or take instructions from China.
- On November 22, the $4 published a leaked excerpt from TikTok's new moderation guidelines, which included instructions not to promote videos related to political protest.
- The company did not deny the authenticity of the Netzpolitik documents, but said it "does not moderate content due to political sensitivities. Our moderation decisions are not influenced by any foreign government."
- On November 28, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) think tank $4 claiming that ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, works closely with the Chinese government to endorse police content, facilitate human rights abuses, and surveil and censor content around the world.
- Bytedance denied all of ASPI's claims.
- TikTok has also repeatedly $4 that it protects user data and has not handed them over to the Chinese government, which has the power to compel tech firms to $4, without the platforms having to notify users.
TikTok has been keen to emphasize its lighthearted side, with the company's leader Alex Zhu telling $4 earlier this month that political discussion is $4
The US military is trying to figure out what China can 'see' inside TikTok
But despite these attempts, it has not managed to shake off any suspicion of its links to Chinese censorship.
The $4 and the $4, a national-security panel, are currently investigating how it handles user data.
TikTok has publicly apologized to Aziz, but she still isn't convinced - meaning the company still has a lot to answer for.
"I really doubt that TikTok is ultimately saying the truth about what's happening here," Aziz told Business Insider on Wednesday. "I think that something is going on and TikTok doesn't want people to find out what's going in China."
This is the "video of Osama bin Laden" TikTok says got Feroza Aziz suspended from the platform. $4 $4
- Alexandra Ma (@AlexandraMa15) $4