Well, I'm back folks, wish it was under better circumstances....
Unfortunately, it's happening again, I'm being shadowbanned on Tiktok. It's their absolute favourite thing to do to Black Creators, although they do extend the discourteousness to other POC, the LGBTQ and the Disabled. Tiktok is a MESS, and not one of those cute little messes you can clean up in 20minutes before the neighbours come over either. No, no, it's a grand Amelia Bedelia-sized, tornado ransacked your house type of mess.
Black Creators have been talking about the indignity of being shadowbanned, having our sounds taken, used and profited off by White Creators and being locked out of monetization and/or randomly banned or blocked from our accounts since 2020. At first tiktok claimed they didn't know what we were talking about and then I suppose, the Olivia Pope of the app said it was a glitch in the system. However, much like racism and institutions of White Supremacy themselves, it is not so much that the system has a glitch or does not work properly as it is that the system is working exactly how White Supremacists designed it to.
The Tiktok system alienates Black Creators and other BIPOC, LGBTQ, Disabled Folks and anyone who doesn't fit into their White, Capitalist narrative as directed. Tiktok is marketed as a happy, and engaging app (it's slogan is "Real people, Real videos" where anyone has a chance to shine or to make a name for themselves doing or talking about what they do or talk about best. Yet it at it's core it is a playground for White Supremacy, cruelty and bullying. Scores of Black Creators have reported being punished for responding to racist, hateful, incensing comments and videos calling them "monkeys" or the "n-word" or other degrading, disrespectful language, if you in any way doubt this look no further than any Black Cosplay Creator's account, for there are always plenty of faceless trolls waiting in the wings to attack, belittle and attempt to degrade them for participating in something that every other ethnicity is apparently welcome to join in on.
To add insult to injury Tiktok will take the sounds and dances made by Black Creators and make them viral with White Creators. Look no further than this Jimmy Fallon incident. Over and over Tiktok has denied Black Creators the space to create what speaks to and sparks our own souls, whether it be singing, dancing, tarot reading, songwriting, writing books, talking about books, whatever the nerdy or benign case Tiktok has proudly stifled our journeys and when not stifling our journeys Tiktok and many of their White Creators are profiting off them.
The answer to this racist conundrum is simple enough, EVERYONE (barring racists and bigots) deserves a voice and everyone has an audience be it big or small, it is the moral and legal responsibility of Tiktok to honour this truth and to level the playing field to a place where Black Creators, Indigenous Creators, Queer Creators, Trans Creators, Disabled Creators and POC Creators are given the same opportunity to shine as Cisgender, Heterosexual, Abled-Bodied, White Men and Women. Period.
Joy