Earlier this week, TikTok suspended the account of the Acton Institute, a public policy think tank based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, without explanation. After an appeal process, the account was restored — but only after deleting two videos the platform claimed violated “community guidelines.”
TikTok did not specify the guidelines that the videos supposedly violated.
Eric Kohn, the organization’s director of marketing and communications, took to Twitter to share their experience and detail why they feel they were banned and why specific videos were removed.
The Institute released The Hong Konger, a documentary highlighting Jimmy Lai, an activist and newspaper publisher in Hong Kong who is imprisoned for exposing the Chinese Community Party’s human rights violations against the people of Hong Kong.
They actively promoted the documentary on social media platforms, including short videos, and received more than four million views on TikTok alone. Their follower count increased by 27,000 followers.
But soon after, TikTok removed one of the videos, claiming that it contained violent or graphic content.
Then came the full account ban.
After the appeal, TikTok restored the account but first removed two videos, one detailing Jimmy Lai’s arrest and the other featuring citizens (including children) of Hong Kong describing what it is like to live in constant fear of and intimidation by the government.
The Acton Institute believes that the Chinese government and funders of TikTok are responsible for the removal (and prior ban) because it exposes their own bad behavior.
