Internet Culture: TikTok Users Come Together To Protest The Censorship of Black Creators on The App

Black Creators & Non-Black Allies Come Together To Protest TikTok’s Censorship

This week on the 19th of May, Black Tiktok creators partook in a one-day ‘blackout’ on the app to protest the censorship and shadowbans of their work, on the app The video-sharing platform does not have a good track record with marginalized communities and has previously come under fire for banning LGBTQ+ content in some countries as well as promoting racially insensitive content.

Black creators banded together for this protest, where they changed their profile pictures to the black power symbol and only followed or liked content from black creators and urged non-black allies to avoid posting videos that day. Branded the #ImBlackMovement, the idea came from Black Lives Matter Utah Founder, Lex Scott, who posted a video calling on creators to participate in the protest.

Scott told CNN, “I did this because black creators are being silenced on TikTok and other social media platforms and I am fed up. Our videos are taken down and our accounts are banned when we speak against racism,” She continued, “I want TikTok to change their policies when it comes to black and brown creators. We should not be punished for speaking against racism. The accounts of actual racists should be taken down.”

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