TikTok is being accused of blocking the hashtags “#BlackLivesMatter,” “#GeorgeFloyd,” and others related to the recent police killing of George Floyd.
The error was first pointed out by a TikTok user who went to upload a video to TikTok and found that he was unable to see the tags, according to TheWrap.
The user called them out, prompting TikTok to respond to the issue saying, “We are aware of an issue that is impacting the hashtag view counts displayed at the upload stage. This appears to affect words at random, including terms like #cat and #hello. Our team is investigating and working quickly to address the issue.”
A TikTok spokesperson told TheWrap that view counts of the hashtags #GeorgeFloyd and #BlackLivesMatter have been fixed and video creators will now again see the viewer count of popular tags displayed on the video upload screen.
According to TheWrap, the issue was happening before content was uploaded to the social media site and videos using the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter continue to be posted, according to TikTok.
TikTok also made it clear the issue was not tied to a specific topic and that it affected other tags as well.
“This appears to affect words at random, including terms like #cat and #hello,” TikTok said in a statement provided to TheWrap. “This bug is affecting view count displays on hashtags at random in the Compose screen only, but it is not affecting tags, videos, or discovery of uploaded content. Our team is investigating and working quickly to address the issue. We apologize for the confusion this is causing.”
This isn’t the first time TikTok has come under criticism for alleged censorship. Back in March, TikTok was accused of taking down videos of Lizzo in her bathing suit while other women claimed the same had happened to them.
TikTok exclusively told us the misunderstanding happened when Lizzo’s video got flagged for violating community guidelines, but after review, they determined that the video did not violate guidelines and was reinstated.
We’ll keep you posted on any updates.
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