Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
      • Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito argued abortion isn’t an economic issue. But is that true?

        Chabeli Carrazana · May 4
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • The 19th Explains: Why the nursing shortage isn’t going away anytime soon

        Mariel Padilla · September 23
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8
      • Voter ID laws stand between transgender people, women and the ballot box

        Barbara Rodriguez · October 14
      • Emily’s List expands focus on diverse candidates and voting rights ahead of midterm elections

        Errin Haines · August 30

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

A photo of a mobile phone with the TikTok app.
(Photo Ilustration by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Technology

On TikTok, misogyny and white supremacy slip through ‘enforcement gap’

A new report shows how extremists use profiles, hashtags and other effects that violate the platform’s community guidelines.

Amanda Becker

Washington Correspondent

Amanda Becker portrait

Published

2021-08-24 11:00
11:00
August 24, 2021
am

Updated

2021-08-24 09:36:45.000000
America/Los_Angeles

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

This article has been updated.

Violent extremists, neo-Nazis and other white supremacist groups are able to easily spread racist, misogynistic and anti-LGBTQ+ content on TikTok that runs afoul of the social media platform’s own terms of service, according to new research by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD).

The ISD report examines how extremists use profiles, hashtags, music and other effects on TikTok. Researchers identified a sample of 1,030 videos from 491 accounts, or about eight hours of content, that seemingly violated TikTok’s community guidelines. At least 312 of those videos promoted white supremacy and 246 expressed support for organizations or individuals known to be extremists or terrorists. At least 58 videos included misogynist content and 90 had anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments, ISD found. 

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

The TikTok content shows how white supremacist movements are often layered with elements of misogyny and anti-LGBTQ+ attitudes. Multiple videos in the sample were linked to the “Men Going Their Own Way” movement, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has categorized as a male supremacist group. Other videos used a white supremacist term to criticize women in mixed-race relationships. Some praised the mass shooter Elliot Rodger, who in 2014 killed six people near a California college campus and circulated a video and written manifesto saying that the attack was related to his hatred of women. 

Videos with anti-LGBTQ+ content celebrated the persecution of gay people by authoritarian regimes and the suicides of transgender people.

The 19th was given a preview of the study’s misogyny-related components ahead of the report’s release on Tuesday by ISD, a nonprofit organization of researchers and policy experts that tracks extremism online and makes recommendations to governments and businesses in the United States and overseas.

ISD researcher Ciaran O’Connor called the report a first-of-its-kind examination of how TikTok is used to spread white supremacy, neo-Nazism or other forms of hate speech. The study concludes there is an “enforcement gap” at TikTok and O’Connor hopes the findings will “start a conversation about the access or lack of access that researchers have when it comes to evaluating and examining hate at scale” on the platform.

O’Connor said that it is difficult for researchers to do large-scale searches of TikTok content so he used a “snowball methodology” — manually searching 157 keywords that led to accounts sharing far-right views, then looking at the accounts to which they were linked — to settle on the sample of 1,030 videos that seemingly violated TikTok’s community guidelines.   

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

TikTok’s guidelines state that the platform will remove content from terrorist or criminal organizations and individuals who “attack people based on protected characteristics” such as race, gender, gender identity or sexual orientation, and that: “We consider attacks to include actions that incite violence or hatred, dehumanize individuals or groups, or embrace a hateful ideology.” 

News investigations have nevertheless revealed that TikTok is used by Islamic State militants and to promote neo-Nazism. While the platform has started releasing transparency reports with details about the content it has removed for violating its guidelines, it is not yet part of a consortium of tech giants such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube involved in an industry anti-terrorism effort to collaboratively track and review content from white supremacists and far-right militia groups.

A TikTok spokesperson said the platform “categorically prohibits violent extremism and hateful behavior, and our dedicated team will remove any such content as it violates our policies and undermines the creative and joyful experience people expect on our platform. We greatly value our collaboration with ISD and others whose critical research on industry-wide challenges helps strengthen how we enforce our policies.”

ISD is recommending that TikTok improve its understanding of how creators spread extremist content and develop more nuanced policies that go beyond straight hashtag bans. The report also notes that TikTok’s interface is “severely limited in the data it provides to researchers or the public,” and suggests improvements to search functionality and greater transparency on how its algorithm works. 

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Help sustain what we started

Your monthly investment is critical to our sustainability as a nonprofit newsroom.

Donate Today

Become a member

Up Next

Blue Origin’s New Shepard crew (L-R) Jeff Bezos and Wally Funk arrive for a press conference after flying into space.

Technology

Wally Funk finally gets her moment in space

In the 1960s, Funk was part of Mercury 13 — a program to train women astronauts that was ultimately canceled. On Tuesday, she became the oldest person to launch into space.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram