Countering hate speech and behaviour

What is hate speech?

Hate speech and hateful behaviour includes attacking, threatening, dehumanising or degrading an individual or group based on their protected attributes.

Protected attributes mean personal characteristics that you are either born with, are immutable, or it would cause severe psychological harm if you were forced to change them or were attacked because of them. These include race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, tribe, caste, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, serious disease, disability and immigration status.

Degrading speech that is not focused on the protected attributes of an individual or group is considered bullying or harassment.

Identifying hate speech and behaviour

Hate speech and hateful behaviour have no place on TikTok. We do not allow hate speech and hateful ideologies, and will not recommend content that contains negative stereotypes about a person or group with a protected attribute. We use a combination of technology and human moderators to detect and remove accounts and content that break our rules.

Hate speech can be conveyed through any form of expression, including images, text, audio, cartoons, memes, objects, gestures and symbols, some of which won’t always be obvious.

Hateful individuals and groups target their victims through a range of tactics, including:

Direct negative attacks

• Abusive attacks that call out an individual or group and their identity while using violent, dehumanising or degrading language
• Commenting on a community or creator’s content with hateful images or degrading language
• Using a hateful slur associated with a protected attribute to attack a creator or their community

Indirect negative attacks

• Jokes and memes that spread stereotypes and normalise discrimination and intolerance
• Conspiracy theories founded on hate that spread distrust or dislike against an individual or group based on their protected attributes
• Coded messages used by hate groups to communicate with each other without appearing hateful, such as code words, symbols or audio trends

What do I do if I or someone I know experiences hate on TikTok?

Nobody deserves to be attacked based on their protected attributes, and TikTok does not tolerate these attacks on our platform. Being attacked because of your identity can be hurtful and distressing, and can also lead to negative long-term mental health effects, including anxiety and depression. If the victim is someone you know, consider checking in with them so you can talk about what they might be going through.

Report: If you or someone you know is experiencing hateful behaviour on TikTok, please report it so our moderation team can review it and take appropriate action if it violates TikTok’s Community Guidelines.

If you decide to report it, you can feel safe knowing that TikTok will not disclose your identity to the person who you are reporting about. Your feedback helps us continuously review and improve our policies, systems and products.

Review our safety tools: We encourage you to use the various safety tools on TikTok to decide who can interact with you or your content. See below for tools and features to protect your well-being on TikTok.

Seek support: It might also be helpful to approach someone you trust so you can speak to them about your feelings and find support for yourself, a friend or family member experiencing hateful behaviour. See our Well-Being Guide for more tips.

Our search tool can also help you find local organisations that you can get in touch with to find out more about countering hate.

Learn more

Tools and Features to protect your well-being on TikTok

• We recognise that different users will have varying perceptions of offensive and negative content. We offer a variety of tools for users to control and manage their TikTok experience. Please visit our Help Centre to learn more about User safety as well as our Safety Centre to learn more about Reporting.
• TikTok enables people to interact with each other in many ways, through comments, direct messages, Duet, Stitch and more. They’re all part of what makes an online community engaging, but, like communication anywhere, they also carry the risk of hurtful interactions. To foster a welcoming and supportive community, we have various app settings (settings vary depending on your region and version of the app) that allow individuals to control their TikTok experience.

How can I speak out against hate on TikTok safely?

• You can find suggestions for and examples of How to Safely Share Your Story and connect with others in our Well-Being Guide.
• Consider using hashtags like #swipeouthate and #noplaceforhate, which are hubs for community conversation, learning and encouragement.

Disclaimer

The content provided on this page is for information purposes and educational use only.