Users on TikTok searching for “WGA” are met with a screen claiming that the phrase “may be associated with behavior or content that violates our guidelines.” No videos return. Users are also unable to search for the “WGA” hashtag.
TikTok has also blocked the search term “WGA strike.”
Additionally, it appears that TikTok is blocking results from any simple search that includes “WGA” in the search term. Including “WGA” in addition to another word — like “WGA support” or “WGA strong” — blocks results.
Update (9/11/23): A TikTok spokesperson told Media Matters that “WGA has been inadvertently blocked as part of the platforms’ protections against QAnon conspiracy theories.” (WWG1WGA is a common QAnon phrase.) The spokesperson added that searches for “Writers Guild of America” and “Writers Guild of America Strike” were not impacted. Searches for “WGA” and related terms now appear to function normally.
(Thanks mike591, SCB, crowsby, and others for putting in the comments)
Reminder: China isn’t communist - it somehow cares about worker enfranchisement even less than the US.
I’m well aware - they approached me with a lucrative job offer years ago, which I declined because I knew who they were.
Are you so naiive as to imagine that a major social media platform headquartered in Beijing is not censoring content at the direction of the CCP when there’s multiple, credible sources pointing to collusion between them?
TikTok executive refuses Jake Tapper’s multiple requests to acknowledge China’s treatment of Uyghurs
TikTok’s owner is helping China’s campaign of repression in Xinjiang, report finds
Xinjiang’s TikTok wipes away evidence of Uyghur persecution
Exclusive: ByteDance censored anti-China content in Indonesia until mid-2020
Revealed: how TikTok censors videos that do not please Beijing
Here’s the TikTok CEO addressing Congress as it relates to their management of US data.
I wonder if you’ll:
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Engage the point (to fight a losing battle),
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Pivot to whataboutism and American diabolism that fails to engage the point, or
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Do the smartest thing under the circumstances (assuming you’re incapable of learning) and quietly skulk away.
Of course ByteDance is influenced by its government, every company is. And to more of an extent in China, because China is governed by a communist-inspired party who seeks to crush bourgeois influence.
My point is that this instance is much more likely an example of ByteDance doing pretty normal, if stupid, private company things. Hell, TikTok itself doesn’t even exist in China. They do have a very similar sister app, Doiyin, but operations between the two are ultimately separate.
According to the article in the post, this suppression of the writer’s strike was related to its effort to remove QAnon-related content from the platform. Apparently some QAnon acronym has WGA in it, and sure, you can dismiss that statement as deflection, and I wouldn’t fault you for it. But then I raise this question:
What does China stand to gain suppressing information about a strike in the US?
It doesn’t help anyone here be more pro-communist, if anything they would push pro-union content for that. China’s image isn’t being emboldened in the US for this, as your comment clearly shows it makes it worse. It makes far more sense for TikTok’s US operations to be suppressing pro-union information, whether at the request of other companies or their own enrichment. But even then, that would easily be spotted and called out, as it did even still. I believe China has far more to gain with its existing spy operations and suppression of internal affairs such as Xinjiang than it does with a labor strike in an entirely sifferent country that its own citizens likely have little, if any, knowledge about.
I don’t like China’s government, by the way. The reason I say all this isn’t to defend them, the reason I do it is because people tend to blame all of Chinese companies’ bad decisions on China itself instead of the companies. Intentionally or not, it absolves the companies of wrongdoing and puts it on China. While China obviously deserves plenty of criticism, from people of all ideologies, this situation just isn’t relevant to that discussion. I also suspect the mass panic surrounding Chinese influence is in no insignificant part manufactured to make the US populace okay with going to war over Taiwan. This isn’t anything new, remember Iraq’s WMDs? I want people to focus on fixing our own, very significant issues, here at home before turning attention overseas. This applies to other countries too but that’s out of scope for this discussion.
That being said, you’re right, I’m not going to continue. Not because I’m not interested in good faith discussion, as my wall of text implies, but because you straight up insulted me and that’s a dick move. My comment might have sounded stern, and I apologize for not clarifying my tone, but you didn’t need to go full Reddit warrior at the end of your comment either. To assume you’d “win” a discussion, instead of engaging to learn the other side, is pathetic and insulting.
The Uyghur thing is red scare propaganda bullshit along the same lines as ‘Free Tibet’
