The most perfidious censorship happens in secret. You can’t resist it, you can’t even get upset about it. No one notices, not even those affected. This is how the video platform Tiktok operated censorship in Germany. Anyone who used certain terms in a comment was secretly blocked: You could still see your own post, but it didn’t appear in other people’s posts.
The keywords that Tiktok filtered are particularly outrageous. Up until last week, it was almost impossible to write about LGBTQ issues without being muzzled. The index contained words like homosexual, queer or gay. Comments containing “Auschwitz” and “National Socialism” were also hidden. This restricts the freedom of speech of millions of people, because in Germany Tiktok is one of the most popular apps among teenagers and young adults. Sometimes they spend several hours a day doing it. With great reach comes great responsibility, Tiktok has not lived up to it.
Have a total of 19 blocked terms NDR, WDR and “Tagesschau” found. This includes Peng Shuai – the name of the tennis player who accused a Chinese official of sexual abuse and then disappeared for weeks. Tiktok’s parent company Bytedance comes from China, the Chinese version of the app is openly and shamelessly censored. Tiktok claims there is no connection: Shuai contains the word “Hua”, a derogatory term for a sex worker in Austrian dialect. The name was accidentally blocked only in the German-speaking area.
Tiktok prides itself on its LGBTQ community
In general: One does not moderate for political reasons and is not influenced by any government. The words in question are mostly used in a negative context, which is why they ended up on the filter list. The goal is an “inclusive environment in which people feel safe and can be authentic”.
Authenticity for Tiktok apparently does not include comments about sexual orientation if they deviate from heteronormativity. Germany boss Tobias Henning repeatedly emphasizes how proud he is as a gay man of the active LGBTQ community.
Tiktok adorns itself with its queer users – and censors “queer”. Tiktok cooperates publicly with Holocaust memorials – and blocks “Auschwitz”. How many terms has Tiktok filtered in total? Which terms have been removed from the Index, which are still banned? Why were some comments blocked with the term “government-in-exile” – does that have anything to do with Tibet? These are just three of many questions that remain unanswered when you talk to Tiktok. The company is remorseful, admits mistakes and promises to improve. But that is not enough. No more.
There is a method to political censorship
Once is nothing, twice is coincidence, three times is a pattern. With Tiktok you have to turn a blind eye to not see a pattern. In the past three years the platform censored videos, among other thingswho mentioned the Tian’anmen massacre or called for independence from Tibet, suppressed undesirable political contenthidden hashtags on LGBTQ topics in at least eight languages and replaced in subtitles Words like concentration camp with asterisk.
“We are an entertainment platform,” it is said again and again, you want to entertain people and have as little to do with politics. With a lot of good will you can call that naive. Tiktok is one of the most influential apps in the world, connecting more than a billion people.
The enormous size in combination with the Chinese owner should be reason to treat Tiktok at least as critically as Facebook. In the current case, it was “clearly unsuccessful to implement our protective measures in an appropriately differentiated manner,” says Tiktok. The company asserts that it is aware of its responsibility and makes its decisions completely independently of China. It’s getting harder and harder to believe.