TikTok is one of the largest social media platforms in the world, but it seems the platform is struggling to regulate some of it’s more harmful content.
Just like most social media platforms, TikTok is inundated with extremist content and conspiracy theories. In a recent study, the video-making platform is currently rivalling YouTube for watch time, but many believe TikTok isn’t doing enough to remove harmful and troubling content.
Recently, there’s been a spike in Nazi-related media, and fact-checker Abbie Richards has been working overtime to educate viewers.
In her latest video, Richards tackles videos discussing Hyperborea, `a fantasy land steeped in racist Nazi ideology, with ties to the Aryan race.
Check out the video below:
Hyperboreans were thought to be mythical people with white skin, blonde hair and blue eyes, who lived in the most norther parts of the earth.
It’s recently been brought to TikTok viewers’ attention, after a video claiming “school will never teach you this” went viral, and received over 1.1 million likes.
Richards came across the video and got straight to work debunking the original poster’s claims, adding that “This stuff is racist and anti-Semitic, but coded enough that people will engage with it like it’s just a story…TikTok knows it’s Nazi shit, that’s why they banned the hyperborea hashtag – they just forgot to ban all the adjacent ones.”
Richards video got over 1.2 million views and now has more than 400,000 likes, which is phenomenal for a debunking video. However, it’s only a third of the likes the original post got, and Richards addressed this in her caption: “1 million of you liked this.”
Richards has since expressed her frustration that her, and fellow debunkers, have to create this content which is seen far less that the original misinformation. She says that “[TikTok] should be giving resources to creators like me with different expertise to make those videos and then they have every right to push those videos.”
Richards isn’t the only TikTok debunker to tackle Nazi ideologies on the platform. German content creator Leonie Plaar (@frauloewenherz on TikTok) has used her platform to discuss the coded Nazi symbols and language used by alt groups.
Plaar notes that the trouble with these coded symbols is that many aren’t aware of their ties to Nazism, so that’s how they end up on these platforms and are not violating laws. She adds that “these symbols and codes convey hateful, dehumanising messages, but they are, frustratingly, not illegal.”
An report by the Institute of Strategic Dialogue found little to no evidence of extremist groups using TikTok publicly, but they have found promotional videos for dictators Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini on the platform.
A spokesperson from TikTok stated that the platform “categorically prohibits violent extremism and hateful behaviour, and our dedicated team will remove any such content as it violates our policies and undermines the creative and joyful experience people expect on our platform.”
However, Richards remains critical of the social media giants, and say that they should be doing more to educate users, rather than just deleting content.
