TikTok donates millions of dollars to support racial equality and Coronavirus.
TikTok says a “technical glitch,” which occurred last week, causing videos using #BlackLivesMatter and #GeorgeFloyd hashtags have no views. The video company announced they would do a better job representing and supporting Black content creators.
Many TikTok users thought it was active censorship by the company, which is owned by Chinese internet giant ByteDance. However, TikTok executives claimed the issue was a “display” problem. The company said videos with #BlackLivesMatter hashtag already had over 2 billion views.
“We acknowledge and apologize to our Black creators and community who have felt unsafe, unsupported, or suppressed,” Vanessa Pappas, TikTok’s U.S. GM, and director of creator community Kudzi Chikumbu wrote in a blog post on Monday. “We don’t ever want anyone to feel that way. We welcome the voices of the Black community wholeheartedly.”
It is also essential to note June 1st is the first day for the incoming TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer, a former Disney executive. In a blog post, Mayer said: “As I begin my work at TikTok, it has never been a more important time to support Black employees, users, creators, artists, and our broader community. I am making this commitment from today, my Day 1.”
Mayer added, “Words can only go so far. I invite our community to hold us accountable for the actions we take over the coming weeks, months, and years. Black Lives Matter.”
TikTok says they are working on ways to “elevate and support Black voices and causes.”
TikTok says they are working on identifying and removing racist content, which violates their terms of service, as well as approving their appeals process over content moderation. TikTok also says it is establishing a “creator diversity council” to boost “voices driving culture, creativity, and important conversations on the platform,” and developing a creator portal to improve communication and collaboration “for our broader creator community,” Pappas and Chikumbu wrote.
TikTok is also donating $3 million to nonprofit organizations that help the black community, which has been disproportionally affected by the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The company will also pledge another $1 million toward “fighting the racial injustice and inequality that we are witnessing in this country,” the execs said.
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