Chinese app, TikTok was heavily criticized for censoring black voices associated with the Black Life Matters hashtags. According to reports, the company is recommending algorithms involving the suppression of videos of black creators. TikTok has since apologized and it is now taking a series of actions to solve this problem.
According to reports, TikTok will launch a “Creator Diversity Committee” to promote the recognition of multiculturalism and creativity. The company said it will also reassess its review strategy, establish a new “user-friendly” feedback program, and develop a new creator portal to expand communication between creators and provide it to a wider range of creators opportunity.
TikTok said that it will participate in the “Black Out Tuesday” action day planned by the music industry on Tuesday to “support the black community”. In addition, TikTok pledged $3 million to help the black community non-profit organizations. In addition, it will also donate $1 million to solve the “problem of racial injustice and inequality”. However, TikTok did not list the names of any specific organizations to get the funds.
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TikTok has been at the hub of controversies for some time now
In May this year, many TikTok users began to change their profile pictures to black power symbols. This is in protest of the platform’s unfair attitude of censoring black creators. There are reports that TikTok users will unfollow other users who do not support this movement. However, black creators require non-black allies to follow at least one new black creator.
TikTok’s response reads “We are very grateful to be accountable. We know that it takes effort to reach a place of trust, but we are committed to doing our part because we will continue to cultivate a way to accommodate everyone”.
In December last year, the app admitted that it suppressed videos of disabled, gay, and fat creators. Other videos that got this unfair treatment include users with autism, down syndrome, birthmarks, or “slight strabismus”. For TikTok, these creators are vulnerable to “cyberbullying” but that is not a good reason.
TikTok’s parent company is a Chinese company, ByteDance, and TikTok’s Chinese version is “Douyin”. On the Apple store, TikTok is the “World’s Most Downloaded App” in the first, third, and fourth quarters of 2019. This app has been at the hub of multiple controversies and there are many organizations, especially in the U.S., that does not use this app.