TikTok Creator Exposes How BLM Is Flagged As Inappropriate Content On The Platform, But Not White Supremacy
TikToker @ziggityler has gone viral on the platform after exposing how TikTok's Creator Marketplace, a platform for creators to pair with brands for paid campaigns, will flag any phrases referencing Black people as "inappropriate," but will not do the same for white people.
@ziggityler ##greenscreenvideo I’m going live in 30 minutes to answer questions. Y’all need to get this message out. Please. ##fypシ ##fyp ##wrong ##justice
In the video, Tyler, who has over 340,000 followers on the platform, shows that if he writes that he supports "white supremacy" in his creator bio, the TikTok Creator Marketplace will accept his bio as appropriate and let him move on to the next step in his profile creation. However, if he writes he supports "Black Lives Matter", TikTok will flag his bio as inappropriate. To further demonstrate his point, if he writes he supports "Black success," TikTok will flag the bio as inappropriate, but will not do the same with the phrase "white success." "Black people" and "Black voices" are also flagged as inappropriate.
The video was reposted to Twitter by numerous people, including @BeingKaylaSmith and @Parissathena, and it began spreading on the platform as people discussed the apparent issue with TikTok's algorithm.
Humans write the algorithm. This is captured racism, prejudice, exclusion, and bias. They intentionally wrote code to keep Black creatives/Black ppl from receiving any type of exposure or monetization.
— Pariss Athena | Founder of Black Tech Pipeline (@ParissAthena) July 6, 2021
This guy is not able to post the word black after statistics in a paragraph. They are not the FBI's crime stats or any other "racist" stats just innocuous statistics about his channel. These are the results you can expect when a "anti racist" algorithm is in charge. https://t.co/V0l72pGDZQ
— Brandon Brown (@BrownBrandon503) July 7, 2021
A perfect example of how when you're marginalised your mere existence is automatically a controversial topic businesses just don't want to deal with. https://t.co/dsFUpnXblc
— official wi spa staff (@notCursedE) July 6, 2021
TikTok has not yet responded to the controversy.
Comments ( 5 )
Sorry, but you must activate your account to post a comment.