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TikTok Told Moderators to Hide Posts by Ugly People, Says Report

Leaked documents show the company feared seeing ugly people could upset new users.

TikTok told its moderators to suppress posts from ugly and poor people, according to a report from The Intercept. The Chinese video-sharing app, which has hundreds of millions of users, reportedly laid out a number of flaws that could lead to videos being secretly barred from the “For You” section of the app, where posts are promoted to a massive audience. The Intercept reports that leaked documents show that videos have been hidden because they show “rural poverty, slums, beer bellies, and crooked smiles.” The document appears to show the company’s fears that uploads by unattractive users could “decrease the short-term new user retention rate,” adding: “If the character’s appearance or the shooting environment is not good, the video will be much less attractive, not worthing [sic] to be recommended to new users.” The documents also reportedly show that moderators were also told to censor political speech, punishing users who harmed “national honor.” A TikTok spokesperson said “most of” the guidelines reviewed by The Intercept “are either no longer in use, or in some cases appear to never have been in place.”