Video sharing platform, TikTok explicitly banned certain types of anti-LGBTQ content and speech on the platform on Tuesday.

In updated community guidelines, the company stated that it is “adding clarity on the types of hateful ideologies prohibited on our platform.”

TikTok stated that it will ban deadnaming or the use of a transgender person’s pre-transition name, and misgendering, the use of incorrect pronouns.

The platform is also prohibiting “content that supports or promotes conversion therapy programs.”

In a statement given on Tuesday, TikTok’s Head of Trust and Safety, Cormac Keenan, commented:

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 … 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 came after pressure from GLAAD, an American LGBTQ media advocacy NGO, and UltraViolet, another American gender justice advocacy group. The agencies state that the new policies came after recommendations were made to TikTok in GLAAD’s Social Media Safety Index that deemed five of the leading social media platforms – including TikTok – “effectively unsafe for LGBTQ users.”

In November, UltraViolet organized an open letter signed by over 75 groups that provided policy recommendations to social media companies for how they could better protect women, people of color, and the LGBTQ communities.

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis commented:

When anti-transgender actions like misgendering or deadnaming, or the promotion of so-called ‘conversion therapy,’ occur on platforms like TikTok, they create an unsafe environment for LGBTQ people online and too often lead to real-world harm. TikTok’s move to expressly prohibit this harmful content in its Community Guidelines and to adopt recommendations made in GLAAD’s 2021 Social Media Safety Index raises the standard for LGBTQ safety online and sends a message that other platforms that claim to prioritize LGBTQ safety should follow suit with substantive actions like these.

For a long time, the LGBTQ community faced excessive online harassment and has long-faced disproportionate amounts of harassment on social media.

Research suggests that deadnaming and misgendering can negatively affect trans-youth and their mental health. In addition to the recent prohibitions, TikTok’s new policy is expected to “remove the promotion of disordered eating,” while removing the use of TikTok to commit crimes, among other changes.

Source: Pro Pakistani