The CEO of TikTok, Shou Zi Chew, is set to testify before Congress next week to defend his company’s social networking app, which is wholly owned by the Chinese parent company ByteDance. The issue at hand is the concerns raised by local and state governments, as well as bipartisan fears in Congress, that the app may be collecting and manipulating user data on behalf of the Chinese government. Of particular concern is the app’s potential impact on the LGBTQ+ community, with several instances of transgender users being seemingly targeted by the platform’s algorithms and having their accounts banned or repeatedly suspended.
Despite TikTok’s positive experiences among the LGBTQ+ community, advocacy group GLAAD has given the app a failing score on LGBTQ+ safety in its annual Social Media Safety Index, citing a staggering rise in anti-LGBTQ+ violence and threats on the platform. According to Yotam Ophir, an assistant professor of communications at the University at Buffalo who studies misinformation and extremism, the LGBTQ+ community has become a target of right-wing messaging and propaganda, with false claims and rhetoric used by right-wing extremists dehumanizing and vilifying the community and provoking stochastic terrorism.
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Research has shown that this type of rhetoric can motivate people to express and possibly act on their prejudiced views, and social media plays a crucial role in the spread of this stochastic terrorism. GLAAD, Media Matters for America, and the US Department of Justice and the FBI have all identified social media, including TikTok, as a key platform for the spread of such extremism. As Congress continues to scrutinize the app’s Chinese ownership and potential risks to national security, the LGBTQ+ community is also calling for greater attention to be paid to its safety on the platform.
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