TikTok Bans Deadnaming & Misgendering To Protect LGBTQ+ Community

In its latest community guidelines update, TikTok has added rules to ban deadnaming, misgendering, and misogyny in a move to protect users on the app. 

This is in addition to other banned “hateful ideologies,” the platform writes in a news release, such as conversion therapy, which has been known to be extremely detrimental to LGBTQ+ youth. 

Although the ideologies have “long been prohibited” on the platform, the social media app states that it has decided to make these more clear, thanks to feedback from its creators and external organizations.

This builds on a previous update that allows users to add pronouns to their profiles, which Input reports was introduced late last year. 

However, it’s not clear how TikTok intends to enforce the new bans—most guidelines like these are implemented using automatic detecting, usually of hateful keywords and slurs. 

In contrast, identifying hateful misgendering and intentional deadnaming are far more complex, and it would also mean that whoever—or whatever—is doing the tracking needs to be aware of users’ gender identities and their actual deadname. Relying on an algorithm to do this isn’t the easiest thing to implement. 

All this being said, it’s a good step to protecting and respecting users of what is currently one of the most popular social media platforms in the world. It’s now up to the platform to deliver on its promises. 

The updated guidelines were announced on Tuesday as part of additional guidelines introduced to make the social media platform a safer place for its users, including restricting content that encourages dangerous acts and harmful disordered eating habits. 

[via NPR and Input, image via Pemika Chedpiroon / Shutterstock.com]