TikTok likes to market itself as a global paragon of self-expression and ‘anything goes’ creativity.

The ‘anything goes’ part is obvious. The sheer volume of inappropriate videos about COVID-19 has been off the charts.

The platform has also opened up avenues for more influencers, and that’s never a good thing.

Unfortunately, the horrific videos that some have chosen to make and share using the platform isn’t the full extent of the darker side of TikTok.

The Intercept managed to get hold of some internal documents from the company. These documents encourage moderators to censor political speech, especially political speech that harmed “national honour” in China, and it doesn’t end there.

These previously unreported Chinese policy documents, along with conversations with multiple sources directly familiar with TikTok’s censorship activities, provide new details about the company’s efforts to enforce rigid constraints across its reported 800 million or so monthly users.

Videos showing rural poverty, slums, beer bellies and people with – and you can’t make this stuff up – “crooked smiles” have also been censored.

One document goes so far as to instruct moderators to scan uploads for cracked walls and “disreputable decorations” in users’ own homes — then to effectively punish these poorer TikTok users by artificially narrowing their audiences.

One document also describes algorithmic punishments for unattractive users, and users with noticeable disabilities.

Regarding the policy of suppressing videos featuring unattractive, disabled, or poor users, TikTok spokesperson Josh Gartner stated that the rules “represented an early blunt attempt at preventing bullying, but are no longer in place, and were already out of use when The Intercept obtained them.”

“Blunt” doesn’t quite cover it. Censoring people isn’t an effective way to stop bullying. Gartner was also unable to state why the document that was supposedly created to prevent bullying makes zero mention of bullying.

Also if you’re wondering how the site qualified “ugly” or “unattractive”, here’s a look at their guidelines:

Abnormal body shape, chubby, obvious beer belly, obese or too thin fall into the category of an undesirable body type. Then there’s “ugly facial looks”, fangs, lack of front teeth, “senior people with too many wrinkles”, and facial deformities.

As for the environment where the video is shot – a shabby environment or anything that looks like it belongs to someone who doesn’t have a lot of cash “won’t fly”.

It’s not clear how widespread this exclusionary practice has been, but it’s one more reason not to download the app.

[source:intercept]