Compass Gender: TikTok Censors LGBTQ+ Content in Eastern Europe and the Middle East

TikTok suppresses LGBTQ+-related hashtags in at least eight Eastern European and Middle Eastern languages (Claire Beezley).

TikTok is censoring LGBTQ+-related hashtags in at least eight Middle Eastern and Eastern European languages, according to a report from the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) released September 8. The popular video-sharing app uses a technique known as shadow banning to keep LGBTQ+ content off users’ feeds in countries including Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Jordan.

Shadow banning is a form of censorship that hides certain content from other users’ feeds while still allowing the targeted account to continue posting. A creator has no way of knowing their content is shadow banned outside of noticing a decrease in followers, likes, or engagement. 

TikTok has shadow-banned hashtags such as “gay,” “transgender,” and “I am gay/lesbian” in languages including Russian, Arabic, and Bosnian. This means that despite creators posting with these hashtags, the hashtags themselves are not searchable, making LGBTQ+ content harder to access in these languages. While the countries associated with these languages generally have harsher legal restrictions on LGBTQ+ rights, the app’s censorship often goes beyond what the law requires. For instance, TikTok users in Jordan, an Arabic-speaking country, are subject to the same shadow bans even though homosexuality is legal there.

TikTok’s shadow bans prevent users from searching for certain LGBTQ+-related hashtags (Twitter).

LGBTQ+ creators have voiced their concerns over the harmful effects the censorship might have on the LGBTQ+ community. Stonewall, an LGBTQ+ rights group, said that TikTok is a “vital community hub” for LGBTQ+ people, especially those “living in countries where they can face persecution for being themselves.”  

This is not the first time investigators have discovered TikTok’s suppression of specific creators, including LGBTQ+ ones. In a report released by the German site Netzpolitik, leaked documents revealed how moderators marked certain users to be on a list called “special users,” whose content would have a cap on recommendations to general users. Several users on the list had a rainbow flag in their personal description, or they self-identified as lesbian, gay, or non-binary.

In response to ASPI’s report, TikTok claimed that several of the shadow-banned hashtags were associated with pornographic content, adding that the app “strongly supports our LGBTQ+ creators around the world.”

Regardless of whether the China-owned company was intentional in their censorship of LGBTQ+ content, other Chinese apps have set a precedent for censoring popular LGBTQ+-related hashtags. Representatives for Weibo, another popular Chinese app, said that the company intended to investigate cartoons or short videos related to gay, pornographic, or violent subject matter over a three-month period. They quickly took back this statement after massive public backlash. 

This is perhaps indicative of the recent official crackdowns China has made toward its LGBTQ+ community. A spokesperson for the Beijing LGBT Centre predicted that “China’s censorship of LGBT content will be ever more strict this year compared to last year.”