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TikTok denies US teen was banned from platform for China criticism
A U.S. teenager said this week that she was kicked off the popular Chinese-owned video streaming platform TikTok for criticizing China and its treatment of Uighur Muslims.
TikTok quickly responded, saying that wasn’t the case. The video in question appears to be at the start just an ordinary beauty tips video. But the young woman, named Feroza Aziz (pictured), part way through accuses China of having “concentration camps” in the country, something that she says is “another Holocaust.”
The woman went on, accusing China of “separating families from each other, kidnapping them, murdering them, raping them, forcing them to eat pork, forcing them to drink, forcing them to convert.” The video quickly went viral, and it appears her smartphone was then blocked from using TikTok.
“TikTok does not moderate content due to political sensitivities,” a spokesperson for the company told the BBC. “Her new account and its videos, including the eyelash video in question, were not affected and continue to receive views.”
Old accounts belonging to Aziz had been banned in the past for breaking rules concerning terrorism-related content. It’s reported that the previous ban was for a video joking about Osama bin Laden.
“China is scared of the truth spreading,” Aziz tweeted Monday after the ban. “Let’s keep scaring them and spread the truth. Save the Muslims.” Two days later she wrote that the ban would last one month, adding, “They won’t silence me.”
TikTok has been criticized lately for censoring content related to matters that might upset the Chinese government. The Guardian wrote in September that the company has been told to crack down on content about Tiananmen Square and Tibetan independence, while the company has also been accused of censoring content relating to the Hong Kong protests.
In October, two U.S. senators said that TikTok needs to be investigated, stating that the platform is a “potential counterintelligence threat we cannot ignore.” TikTok responded to allegations that it was working with the Communist Party of China, saying, “We have never been asked by the Chinese government to remove any content and we would not do so if asked. Period.”
Photo: TikTok
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