Thick and ugly entry is prohibited. Wild TikTok moderation rules hit the Web

True, it is not clear to the end whether they have ever been used.

TikTok is one of the most popular social platforms in the world and definitely the most trending. But, as Facebook has repeatedly proved, such regalia does not protect against strange and sometimes extremely controversial actions.

According to sources, TikTok executives instructed the moderators of the platform to block publications created by users, whom these very moderators would consider ugly, poor or unsuitable for the platform.

These will include unnecessarily full people, people with beer bellies, some kind of external flaws, too thin, people with some kind of flaws in the face and so on. To the extent that excess wrinkles can also cause video blocking. In addition, if the video shows too “poor” surroundings, the video will also fall into the ban. 


They explain it as simply as possible: ugly people repel new users, and the poor environment is unfashionable and unattractive. All this looks so wild, especially against the background of modern trends regarding tolerance, which may seem fake. But, these are really the real rules of moderation.

In addition, they can ban those who live talking about politics or some government bodies, criticize the authorities and so on, but here, probably, the restrictions concern directly China. In addition, similar videos on TikTok were blocked earlier.

It is important that the representative of TikTok commented on the situation, saying that most of the criteria listed are either not used or have never been used. Since it is unclear how old the documents were on the Web, it is difficult to verify these words. However, some sources claim that both sets of criteria (regarding appearance and policy) were used at least at the end of last year.

Interestingly, the representative of TikTok explained the company's policy regarding ugly people by the fact that in this way the platform originally intended to protect such users from bullying. True, as can be seen in the screenshots, there is nothing of the kind in the explanation column.

Sources also say that all such moderation rules come from TikTok's main Chinese office, but this is logical since this is the Chinese company.

TheIntercept