TikTok is cracking down on “hate” which apparently includes “misgendering” or “dead naming” transgender people.
“Dead naming” is when you use the name a transgender person was given by their parents at birth and “misgendering” is when you use the gender that they were born with.
The platform also has a new feature to allow people to add their preferred pronouns to their bio.
In an update to their community guidelines, the Chinese-owned platform said that they are aiming to “foster an experience that prioritizes safety, inclusion, and authenticity.” The company said that they are also going to take a harder approach to content related to self-harm, suicide, eating disorders and misogyny.
The Hill reports that “anti-LGBTQ+ language, including misgendering or deadnaming transgender or nonbinary creators and spreading information supporting conversion therapy practices, will also not be tolerated.”
“Though these ideologies have long been prohibited on TikTok, we’ve heard from creators and civil society organizations that it’s important to be explicit in our Community Guidelines,” Cormac Keenan, TikTok’s head of trust and safety, said in a statement on Tuesday. “On top of this, we hope our recent feature enabling people to add their pronouns will encourage respectful and inclusive dialogue on our platform.”
“The policy update follows criticism from gender and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups like UltraViolet and GLAAD, which have accused leading social media platforms of not doing enough to protect female and LGBTQ+ creators,” The Hill’s report noted. LGBT organization UltraViolet published an open letter from more than 75 gay rights orgs with policy recommendations to social media companies, including TikTok.
