Discriminatory Content Moderation
Unfair content moderation is a growing issue for creators on social media platforms like TikTok. Content moderation decisions are not equally applied to all users, leading to unfair censorship related to race, gender, and political orientations. These findings are important because it is a form of modern-day discrimination and it is going unnoticed.
According to a study, the three main victims of this occurrence are Black people, transgender people, and political conservatives, but the type of content that gets removed changes across each group. Conservatives’ removed content usually consists of harmful content that includes false information. More specifically, conservatives’ content included misinformation, Covid-related, adult, or hate speech that is clearly offensive and violates the platform’s community guidelines.
On the other hand, transgender and Black creators’ removed content usually consists of them expressing their experiences being part of a marginalized group. Black creators on TikTok have reported that their follower and view counts shrink after they post about experiencing racism on the app. Creators who are subject to this treatment on the app suffer from mental health issues in return because they spend a lot of time thinking that it’s their fault that the videos are not doing well when, in reality, it’s the algorithm’s fault.
Some content creators who are part of marginalized groups experience being shadowbanned — when your content does not show up on anyone’s feed unless they are already following you — without any explanation. Creators know when they’re shadowbanned because they know what it looks like for their content to do well. On other social media platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, an abundant amount of people from these groups have experienced their content being removed and their accounts being “accidentally” deleted as a whole, according to a report on algorithmic bias.
With this ongoing issue, there are minimal solutions. Some creators just repost the same video that got taken down. Doing this, though, heightens the risk of their entire account being disabled because of the repeated act of posting content that is, apparently, a flag for the platform. Some creators simply shift their focus from TikTok to YouTube, but it tends to be harder for them to reach the same size audience that they once had.
Last year, to show support for Black creators’ unfair censorship, thousands of TikTok users changed their profile pictures to the Black power symbol. In return, TikTok released a set of actions and an apology, trying to better support its Black creators. They promised to take actionable steps to create a more inclusive environment on the platform, including “establishing a creator diversity council programs geared towards recognizing and uplifting the voices driving culture, creativity, and important conversations on the platform.” Even after all of that, Black and LGBTQIA+ creators are still experiencing the same issues.
