Social media pioneers in Saudi Arabia, along with a large number of celebrities and artists, have launched a campaign to boycott “Tik Tok”, pointing out that the application “removes” content related to the Kingdom.
Social media users took to “X”, “Facebook” and “Instagram” to announce their boycott of “Tik Tok”, highlighting the app’s bias against Saudi content, so that any posts relating to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia be immediately abolished. , and they accompanied these allegations with screenshots. It appears that TikTok has removed a number of posts.
The wave of anger also pushed users to go to the Google Play and Apple Stores to lower the app’s rating.
In response to this campaign, TikTok’s official Middle East website released an official statement, part of which was published on the “X” platform, saying: “At TikTok, we are proud of our community in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is a source of inspiration for creativity in various fields.
The statement explained: “There is no truth to the rumors circulating regarding TikTok’s removal of content related to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We strongly reject these allegations as they are inconsistent with our policies and values and misrepresent TikTok’s content management policies. TikTok is committed to implementing a set of community guidelines that include rules and standards. Use of the platform.
He continued: “The guidelines apply to all people and all types of content on our platform. These guidelines are derived from legal frameworks, industry best practices, input from our community and public safety and health experts. We continue to develop them to address emerging risks and potential harm that may result from new behaviors.
The statement added: “We would like to note that these policies are implemented by our global, independent security and safety teams. The members of the Advisory Board or our collaborators do not intervene in the decisions made by these teams, as is circulating on certain social networks, and we firmly reject the deliberate defamation campaigns which are practiced on our collaborators and partners and threaten their security and security.”
The statement highlights: “We, on the TikTok platform, are proud to build a community that effectively contributes to the creative system worldwide, and we are also proud of our community in the Kingdom, which has been a source of inspiration for creativity in various fields. This community has also helped raise awareness of Saudi culture among our global community, such that it reached the hashtag #WhereToVisitKSA which received over 728 million views worldwide, and the hashtag #WhereToEatKSA reached over a billion views worldwide. Saudi creative talent is also leading the scene, with #SaudiTalentWeek reaching over 302.8 million views worldwide. Additionally, we continue to monitor a number of unsubstantiated allegations against our platform. “There is no justification or logic for such organized action against us.”
The statement ends by calling on TikTok, all members of our community, to be careful when posting information and to resort to us through existing channels and submit a direct appeal in our application if they believe that a content and/or an account has been incorrectly deleted. .
Although TikTok released this clarifying statement, the boycott campaign is still ongoing, with a number of social media users saying the statement is “false” and that they are continuing the boycott.
