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TikTok is an app of joy and creativity. It's also the exploitation of Black culture at its most refined and disturbing.
We heard from 29 Black creators who shared stories of muted posts, in-app harassment, and incidents of racism 1/ https://wired.trib.al/OGrUwR7
We heard from 29 Black creators who shared stories of muted posts, in-app harassment, and incidents of racism 1/ https://wired.trib.al/OGrUwR7
Early on, TikTok’s embrace of wackiness was its prime attraction. But as it‘s grown to more than 800 million users, the app has begun to mirror the larger world: the quirks, passions, and prejudices of the people who have started to populate and influence the form 2/
A common denominator of many of its viral moments is an unspoken partiality to Black cultural expression. Its most effective videos come down to how well a creator grabs hold of our attention.
Blackness is a proven attention getter. Its adoption is racism, custom-fit 3/
Blackness is a proven attention getter. Its adoption is racism, custom-fit 3/
Creators, a majority of them white, have discovered that mimicking Black expression is the quickest way to succeed on TikTok. They embody Blackness with an auteur-driven virtuosity—taking on Black rhythms, gestures, affect, slang 4/
One highly visible avatar of the trend is the Hot Cheeto Girl, a meme that plays on the image of a loud and defiant low-income youth. The hashtag has over 160 million views and is one of the app’s more slippery instances of cultural distortion 5/
The #HowsMyForm challenge is another example. It began with a video captioned “Best S3X positions for guys with 9-12-inchers.” Partway through, a new caption appears: “Ok, now that all the black guys are here can you help me with my waves!” 6/
TikTok professes “to inspire creativity and bring joy,” but Black users who think they’re fulfilling that goal often find themselves muted, censored, or worse.
After Precious Bissah began calling out racism on the app, her account was taken down without explanation 7/
After Precious Bissah began calling out racism on the app, her account was taken down without explanation 7/
On Blackout Day, a demonstration of solidarity among Black users who claim the platform is unfairly censoring them, Brianna Blackmon uploaded a 53-second freestyle in a sign of unity. It went viral. Then TikTok removed her audio.
Her video protesting censorship was censored 8/
Her video protesting censorship was censored 8/
TikTok often mutes posts for violating its community guidelines, but Blackmon wasn’t told which she had violated. As is typical in these cases, she’s given no explanation or notice of any kind.
The audio was eventually restored, but the damage was done 9/
The audio was eventually restored, but the damage was done 9/
After George Floyd was killed, TikTok publicly acknowledged its failures with the Black creator community. The company wrote an apology letter, formed a “creator diversity collective” to regularly meet with leadership, and established a fund to generate revenue for users 10/
Tech has always been less inclined to acknowledge how dismissive it can be of people on the margins and those who arise from those spaces.
TikTok's extension of this practice puts it at a grave risk of alienating the very people it needs to succeed 11/ https://wired.trib.al/OGrUwR7
TikTok's extension of this practice puts it at a grave risk of alienating the very people it needs to succeed 11/ https://wired.trib.al/OGrUwR7
