TikTok used to block any content that could possibly be controversial or offensive—even tattoos and too much cleavage. Now it’s loosening up.
By Georgia Wells Close Georgia Wells , Shan Li Close Shan Li and Liza Lin Close Liza Lin July 8, 2020 12:04 pm ET TikTok has been one of the world’s biggest distractions during the pandemic, thanks to its endless stream of bite-size videos featuring dance-offs, pranks and other goofs.Experimenting with letting users post short political videos, the app is emerging as a platform for protesters and mischief-makers alike in a moment of social unrest around the world.
This week, Chinese politics embroiled TikTok as the parent company of the app said it would pull the app out of Hong Kong, where a new national-security law imposed by mainland China will empower police to make internet companies hand over user data. TikTok will exit from Google and Apple app stores in Hong Kong and cease operations for users there.
Yet as TikTok grows in the West, the app built under a Chinese legal system that involves concessions to censorship faces the risk of alienating users accustomed to free expression. TikTok has eased up somewhat lately not only on political but also on its cultural strictures. ByteDance, which already owned the popular Chinese app Douyin, developed TikTok in 2017 out of a fast-growing Chinese app called Musical.ly, which ByteDance acquired. TikTok is similar to Douyin, which operates only in China.
“We do not, and have not, remove videos based on the presence of Hong Kong protest content,” the spokeswoman for TikTok said in a written statement. The U.S. content-moderation team was already battling with Beijing executives over how much cleavage should be permitted, members said. The team eventually started having a weekly conference call with the executives to air frustrations with rules that also included no hip thrusting, shaking of the upper torso, tattoos, drugs or cigarettes.
In mid-June, her TikTok account started working again. A notification said it had been blocked for “serious pornography.” She said she wasn’t told why it was reinstated. Share Your Thoughts Should TikTok allow political videos or stick to the lighter fare that made it popular? Join the conversation below.
The move followed an incident in July 2018 when Indonesia blocked TikTok after a group of local mothers complained about videos they saw as pornographic, according to Rudiantara, Indonesia’s former information communications and technology minister. The videos showed young people dancing provocatively, a TikTok employee said. Mr. Rudiantara said TikTok executives flew to Jakarta and promised to form a team to filter out videos that could offend in Indonesia.
The incremental moves to loosen restrictions could expose TikTok to risks in China, where the government has historically cracked down on businesses that got outside accepted Chinese cultural norms.
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