TECH
TikTok Targets Transphobia, Conversion Therapy
Social media giant reaffi rms efforts to eradicate hate
BY MATT TRACY
The social media giant
TikTok is taking a more
direct stand against
hate with a new policy
explicitly banning deadnaming,
misgendering, misogyny, and the
promotion of conversion therapy.
“Though these ideologies have
long been prohibited on TikTok,
we’ve heard from creators and
civil society organizations that
it’s important to be explicit in our
Community Guidelines,” Cormac
Keenan, TikTok’s head of trust
and safety, said in a news release
on February 8. “On top of this, we
hope our recent feature enabling
people to add their pronouns will
encourage respectful and inclusive
dialogue on our platform.”
The new policy is also coming
with a crackdown on content promoting
eating disorders. The social
TikTok is vowing to take a stronger stand against transphobia and conversion therapy.
media platform says it already
works to combat content surrounding
eating disorders, but now that
effort is being “broadened.”
“We’re making this change, in
consultation with eating disorders
experts, researchers, and physicians,
as we understand that people
can struggle with unhealthy
eating patterns and behavior without
having an eating disorder diagnosis,”
Keenan added. “Our aim
is to acknowledge more symptoms,
such as over-exercise or short-term
fasting, that are frequently underrecognized
signs of a potential
problem.”
GLAAD, a national LGBTQ media
monitoring group, and Ultra-
Violet, a national gender justice
advocacy organization, said they
encouraged TikTok to amend the
policy. Both groups praised the
changes.
“When anti-transgender actions
like misgendering or deadnaming,
or the promotion of so-called ‘conversion
therapy,’ occur on platforms
like TikTok, they create an unsafe
environment for LGBTQ people
online and too often lead to real
world harm,” said Sarah Kate Ellis,
GLAAD’s president and CEO. “Tik-
Tok’s move to expressly prohibit this
harmful content in its Community
Guidelines and to adopt recommendations
made in GLAAD’s 2021 Social
Media Safety Index raises the
standard for LGBTQ safety online
and sends a message that other
platforms which claim to prioritize
LGBTQ safety should follow
suit with substantive actions like
these.”
Bridget Todd, UltraViolet’s communications
director, said TikTok
“became a little safer for women,
girls, LGBQ, and trans people today.”
“We applaud TikTok for responding
effectively to our recommendations
and implementing them into
an updated, more protective user
policy,” Todd added. “Even so, it’s
REUTERS/MIKE BLAKE
clear social media platforms have a
long way to go across the board.”
TikTok and other platforms were
grilled by the Senate Subcommittee
on Consumer Protection, Product
Safety, and Data Security last year
in a hearing that brought teenage
mental health issues to the fore.
The push to hold social platforms
accountable has coincided with a
campaign by GLAAD and Ultra-
Violet to issue recommendations
to social media companies regarding
how to improve platforms and
avoid discrimination. That effort,
which included encouraging an
expansion of the defi nition of hate
speech and enforcing anti-harassment
policies, drew support from
75 organizations, such as Planned
Parenthood Federation of America,
Asian Americans in Action, Equality
Labs, and Innovation Ohio. At
the same time, social media monitoring
efforts have also elevated the
issue of sex workers’ rights online.
SESTA/FOSTA, which passed in
2018 with bipartisan backing, created
exceptions in Section 230 of
the 1996 Communications Decency
Act, which had kept providers
of computer services from being
held responsible for users’ actions
on their platforms. That prompted
many sites to shut down due to
concern that the law would target
the sites serving as hubs for sex
workers. Many have complained
that SESTA/FOSTA has forced
many sex workers off the web and,
instead of vetting clients online,
end up in unsafe environments
where they are vulnerable to attacks.
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