TikTok is censoring videos with LGBTQ+ hashtags in Russian and Arabic

By Chris Stokel-Walker

TikTok is a video-sharing social media platform

SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

TikTok is censoring videos uploaded with LGBTQ+ hashtags in nine languages, including Russian and Arabic, claims a new report. In some countries that speak these languages homosexuality is illegal. Videos with these hashtags seem to be treated in the same way as those promoting ISIS, Nazism and the Ku Klux Klan.

The Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a Canberra-based think tank, has analysed the way TikTok handles content that contains hashtags related to sexual orientation or gender identity. It found that the words for “gay” in Russian, …