Whether it’s their faces or their politics, the Chinese social media app TikTok is reportedly censoring users’ viral videos in several ways.
TikTok, a social media app that features short videos, has been suppressing content that includes political speech critical of the Chinese Communist Party, according to a Monday report from the Intercept. The app has also ordered moderators to filter out content from users deemed “ugly” in an attempt to attract more people to the platform.
The report, which was based on leaked internal documents, revealed that the platform’s moderators had been directed to suppress any content that damaged China’s “national honor” or disclosed information about the operations being conducted by law enforcement. The list included content that highlighted the “Tiananmen Square incidents.”
Beyond content specific to the Chinese Communist Party, moderators were also told to suppress videos showing poverty and were instructed to scan clips for damaged homes with cracked walls or other signs of “rural poverty.”
Moderators were also told to limit “ugly” users’ content. Such content was categorized to include people with missing teeth, wrinkles, “ugly facial looks,” or who were “chubby.”
Executives explained the suppression requests, telling moderators, “This kind of environment is not that suitable for new users for being less fancy and appealing.”
TikTok, which has 800 million monthly users, has been on the federal government’s radar as it grows in popularity. Several senators, including Arkansas Republican Tom Cotton and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, have expressed concern about the national security risk TikTok could pose as the app accesses user data from its American users.
