Hello, and welcome back to the channel and Vlogmas.
Today, we're gonna be talking about TikTok,
which I think is a first for me.
Now, I do have a TikTok channel, which I have not yet uploaded to,
but perhaps I shouldn't because, apparently,
TikTok is going to suppress everything that I upload.
So, I came across this article on Twitter titled,
'TikTok Admits It Suppressed Videos by Disabled, Queer, and Fat Creators'.
Now, before we get through reading that article,
if you're interested in more awareness videos about deafness,
disability, LGBT content, bisexuality, to be more exact,
and just overall general lifestyle things about whatever I feel like,
be sure to subscribe and hit that notification bell,
so you don't miss out on any videos.
And, also, if you really wanna stick it to TikTok,
I do have a Patreon page, so if you wanna pledge and help out with that,
I'll have a link down below.
You get exclusive videos and writing.
I'm posting NaNoWriMo stuff,
so it helps out the channel and other campaigns that I do.
If you take the time to pledge, I appreciate it.
And you get a free "Do I Look Deaf Now?" sticker.
Every new pledge does for the month of December.
Alright, let's read on, shall we?
"TikTok, a social network video app with more than 1 billion downloads globally,
admitted Tuesday to a set of policies that had suppressed the reach of content
created by users assumed to be 'vulnerable to cyberbullying'.
As examples of users 'susceptible to bullying or harassment',
the policy listed people with facial disfigurement,
autism, Down syndrome, and disabled people
or people with some facial problems such as birthmarks, slight squint, and etc."
Alright, what's their stance on people with deaf accents
and speech impediments?
Because I often, OK, every once in a while get called a (BLEEP)
and other things in my comments every once in a while on here
and on Twitch.
"The admission came after the German site Netzpolitik
reported that TikTok asked moderators to watch 15-second videos
and decide if the creator looked like the type of person
others might want to bully.
If so, moderators were instructed to add flags to the account
of these 'vulnerable' users.
These flags would stop their videos from being shown to audiences
outside of their home country and, in some cases,
would prevent their videos from appearing in other users' feeds.
A list of flagged users obtained by Netzpolitik
included people with and without disabilities
whose bios included hashtags like #fatwoman and #disabled
or had rainbow flags and other LGBTQ identifiers."
So, what I'm getting at is TikTok is not showing videos
by disabled, fat, and/or queer creators to other countries
in hopes that nobody's going to talk about them badly,
even though that could still happen in their creators' home countries.
I wanna continue reading this before I give out my full thoughts.
OK, let's go.
"Among those who found out their content had been supressed
was Annika, or 'Miss_Anni21', a 21-year-old, self-described fat woman
with 23,000 TikTok followers.
Although Annika's videos have attracted both positive and negative comments,
she told Netzpolitik that the action was 'discriminatory' and 'inhuman'."
(SPEAKS GERMAN)
"A TikTok spokesperson told Netzpolitik,
'This approach was never intended to be a long-term solution,'
and said the policies were no longer in use.
TikTok also said, 'While the intention was good,'"
Really?
"'The approach was wrong
and we have long since changed the earlier policy
in favour of more nuanced anti-bullying policies and in-app protection.'
Despite TikTok's statement, Netzpolitik has identified
the rules were in place as recently as September."
And we are now in December, and this article was posted in December.
"The team at TikTok that developed the video suppression policy
may have earnestly believed it was a helpful reaction to the scourge..."
Helpful reaction to bullying people receive.
Let's put it that way.
"Online harassment remains an intractable problem,
and people with disabilities are among those disproportionately targeted."
Point.
"One study found that, in Boston,
students with disabilities were 1.8 times as likely as their peers
to be victims of cyberbullying." Point.
"And yet, the same study,
authored by Miriam Heyman of the Ruderman Family Foundation,
also found that students with disabilities were also more likely
to receive support from others via social media.
For members of any minority group, social media provides an opportunity
to connect with others with shared experiences,
to find role models and content reflecting their own life
that isn't represented in traditional media."
Very, very true, and I'm very thankful for social media
because that has provided me with opportunities and friends
that I would not have if it wasn't a thing.
"Some even translate their reach into dollars.
Aaron Philip," love her,
"a disabled, trans influencer,
won modelling contracts with Sephora and Dove
after going viral on Twitter.
And Keah Brown landed a book deal with Simon & Schuster
for her essay collection 'The Pretty One'
after her hashtag, #disabledandcute, took off.
And then, it talks about more of these opportunities,
but let's keep going to the suppressing stuff.
"Facebook has also come under fire for its policies toward disabled people.
Earlier this year, the social network removed a video
containing a sexy picture of amputee Vicky Balch
on the Facebook page of Ability Access,
which promotes the disabled community.
'You will have to understand that some people see disability as disturbing.'
After a backlash,
the company apologised for its choice of words,
although it declined to restore the video,
saying that Balch's partial nudity violated standards around adult content,
not any policies related to people with disabilities."
There are abled women who are posting lingerie photos on Facebook
that still have their photos on there.
So, I'm sorry. What?
Also, yeah, I remember when Facebook said,
"You will have to understand that some people see disability as disturbing."
And...
This also happened to Chris from Special Books by Special Kids.
I can't remember the full name of this channel right now.
But a video was taken down or an image was blurred or something
because the picture was of someone who is a burn victim
and that kind of raised some backlash.
And, at the end of the day, that whole situation went viral,
and the man, the boy, was able to get so much money
for his medical bills.
That part was awesome.
But the fact that Facebook was doing this sort of thing was not awesome.
"There's been a lot of debate
about whether social media companies should 'deplatform' bullies,
but the solution is certainly not to deplatform the target of those attacks."
Yeah, because here's what happens.
And I don't know what the rest of this article's about to say,
but I wanna say this.
TikTok is no better than the people who would be making some sort of comment.
What TikTok is or was,
depending on what their policies actually still are at the time of filming this,
what they're doing is no better than what these other people are doing
because they are also oppressing disabled people
by making sure that their content doesn't get anywhere.
You are taking away potential work opportunities
from disabled people
because you think that we need to be babied.
I agree that nobody needs to be bullied, disabled people or anyone.
I get what you're trying to do,
but really, you're no better, TikTok.
You're not being any better because you're also being ableist.
Social media's important to so many of us because, like I said earlier,
social media is what has given so many of us opportunities.
Book deals and modelling deals, acting deals, etc, etc,
have come because of social media
because us going out into the real world, into the mainstream, able world,
has done nothing good for so many of us.
Social media has saved lives, and TikTok in doing this has taken that away.
Oh, that's the end of the article. (LAUGHS)
If you are going to make it so that you are going to suppress
or deplatform someone, a group of people,
make it the bullies.
Don't make it us, because what did we do wrong?
We did absolutely nothing wrong unless, apparently, it's just existing.
You think that just existing or trying to make a living or an opportunity,
you think that's something wrong and violating.
Obviously, Facebook thinks that's violating.
Actually, are TikTok and Facebook owned by the same people?
TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook?
So, maybe that's not so shocking
that Facebook and TikTok both have thought of this.
It's also just weird that they were like,
"We're gonna suppress you in other countries,
so other people won't be able to yell at you and make fun of you.
But, hey, if it happens in your home country, oh well."
That makes absolutely no sense to me whatsoever.
I don't agree with bullying.
I don't agree with oppressing disabled people, fat people, LGBT queer people,
and I say that as a bisexual, deaf, disabled woman.
But this is not the way to go.
As much as I do not like getting comments every once in a while
calling me a (BLEEP),
and, why does she sound (BLEEP)?
And why does she sound like this and that?
She sounds like a man or whatever.
Let me deal with that.
You're not helping me by acting like I'm two
and that I can't take care of myself.
I'll delete the comments.
I'll ban the people that do these things.
Let me make those decisions and take care of myself.
You don't need to be doing that for me
because you're actually making my life and my work a lot more difficult
by doing something like that.
Anyway, that's my thought on this article.
Hopefully, they say that this policy is no longer in place, but who knows?
If you have a TikTok, let me know how you like it.
I should probably upload something on there
like I was planning to about a month or so ago.
But, hey, if you wanna follow me, I'll have it up here somewhere.
Hopefully, I'll get something uploaded.
What do people upload on TikTok?
I don't even know.
I feel like I should take advantage, but I have no idea what to upload.
If you'd like to translate this video,
I will have a translation link down below in the description box.
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to watch this video.
And I will see you later. Bye.
(PIANO MUSIC)