TikTok Restricted Videos From Disabled, Overweight, LGBTQ Users From Going Viral

Chinese social media platform, TikTok, reportedly restricted the reach of videos uploaded by disabled, overweight and LGBTQ users in an obviously misguided attempt to protect them from being cyber-bullied. The news is believed to have been starting time reported by Netzpolitik, which says the policy was supposed to protect 'vulnerable' users who the company believed were at a high risk of beingness bullied online.

According to the report, TikTok resorted to 'unusual' means to brand these videos stay out of people'due south feeds. The visitor reportedly instructed its moderators to mark videos of people with disabilities and limit their reach. Gay and overweight people, likewise as those with facial deformities or visible signs of Downwards's Syndrome, were placed in a list of users who are 'highly vulnerable to cyber-bullying', thereby capping the achieve of their videos regardless of the content.

Netzpolitik says that the information comes from insider sources with direct knowledge of the matter. Documents obtained by the blog shows that the company's official content-moderation guidelines had a whole department devoted to protecting users who are "susceptible to harassment or cyberbullying based on their concrete or mental condition". According to the memo, videos of such users should e'er be considered as a risk and their accomplish on the platform should be limited for their ain adept.

TikTok has been embroiled in one controversy after another always since it burst into the scene globally a couple of years ago and, was even banned in India for a limited time because of the pervasiveness of adult content. However, zippo has been able to ho-hum down the app from becoming i of the biggest social media platforms for young people not just in China, but around the world, including India, the US and Europe.