Today, at perhaps the worst possible time, TikTok s were unable to see videos tagged with #BlackLivesMatter or #GeorgeFloyd. The situation created an immediate uproar.
As of this writing, Derek Chauvin, the former police officer recorded kneeling on the neck of George Floyd in a now-infamous video, has been arrested on charges of manslaughter and third-degree murder. This result comes after days of protests and riots in the state of Minnesota, as civilians express outrage over yet another police officer killing an unarmed Black man. The video is beyond unsettling, and the apparent lack of empathy displayed by Chauvin on camera is a major part of why of the Black Lives Matter movement are fighting to keep attention on this case.
As a result, #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd have been consistently popular hashtags throughout this week. Posts about the protest, the progression of the case against Chauvin, and the impact of Floyd's murder on both his family and the nation have all been filtered through that one hashtag. It's understandable then, that TikTok s hashtag had been blocked. According to what the platform's representatives told TheWrap, Black Lives Matter videos were never blocked. Instead, they were impacted by a "random bug".
TikTok's Explanation Still Leaves People Concerned
TikTok's official people aren't buying it, and for a simple reason: "dog" and "hello" are random words, but there's nothing random about the phrases "Black Lives Matter" and "George Floyd".
This doesn't prove any malicious intent on TikTok's part but it's easy to be suspicious. TikTok's moderation policies have been questionable since its inception and were just a topic of controversy less than a week ago. It's not easy to draw a line and find a benefit to the platform banning those words, though, and the bug appears to be fixed now, as #BlackLivesMatter pulls up what one would expect. s on Twitter point toward TikTok's history of censoring other protests, but without evidence, and with the hashtags now functioning properly, the issue has subsided.
Source: TheWrap