A TikTok video clip posted by a US teenager accusing China of putting Muslims into “concentration camps” has gone viral on the Chinese-owned social network.
The post appears to be about beauty tips at its start – however, the young woman then asks her viewers to raise awareness regarding “another Holocaust”.
Feroza Aziz later tweeted that TikTok had blocked her from posting new content.
TikTok disputes this. “TikTok does not moderate content due to political sensitivities,” a spokesman told BBC News. Although, Douyin, the Chinese version of the app, on which Ms. Aziz’s posts would not have appeared, is politically censored.
The company had permanently banned one of Ms. Aziz’s old TikTok accounts on, 15 November 2019, for posting an unrelated video that had broken its rules on terrorism-related material, he said.
Additionally, it had then blocked her smartphone, on 25 November 2019, but that too had been unrelated to her posts about China.
“Her new account and its videos, including the eyelash video in question, were not affected and continue to receive views,” the spokesman added.
The Chinese government has consistently said the camps in question offer voluntary education and training, despite evidence of the contrary.
Ms. Aziz posted three videos about China’s treatment of the Uighur Muslims, between Sunday and Monday.
The first has been watched more than 1.4 million times and “liked” nearly 500,000 times on the app.
A copy uploaded to Twitter by other TikTok users has attracted a further five million views.
GUYS NO JOKE THIS TUTORIAL HELPED ME SO MUCH PLEASE WATCH IT pic.twitter.com/BuITSebOu6
— saltys backup (@soIardan) November 24, 2019
And further copies have been posted to YouTube and Instagram.
TikTok Censors Criticism in Mainland
The videos appeal to the audience because of its presentation. There is a deliberate attempt to sidestep supposed censorship by TikTok’s Beijing-based owner, Bytedance.
Ms. Aziz bends her critical comments with talk about how to make eyelashes look longer.
“I say that so TikTok doesn’t take down my videos,” she explains in one of the recordings.
While the version of TikTok used in mainland China does censor criticism of the Chinese Communist Party, the company says it does not take the same action against posts to the separate library of user-generated content it offers elsewhere.
And it notes that it allows other clips about the mistreatment of Uighurs within Chinese camps remain on its international platform, although they do not get anywhere close to the amount of attention Ms. Aziz has generated.
The 17-year-old’s posted videos the same week that BBC Panorama revealed how leaked documents detailed some of the measures used to brainwash hundreds of thousands of Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang.
They undermine China’s claims that people attend the camps voluntarily. Also, that its aim is counter extremism.
Another video re-surfaces of Chinese persecution
A video describing the horrors faced by Uighur or Uyghur Muslims has been reposted by a Twitter user, see it below:
#China_kills_Muslims #China_is_terrorist I request a of you to please rt this. there are so many people that have no idea this is happening. please bother watching this video. just look at whats happening. Astaghfirullah.
— SAQIB Birthday Boy🎂🎊 👨⚖️ (@Apna_time_ayga) December 22, 2019
People are also reacting to this later trending video, see some of them here:
Hopefully and praying this doesn’t start a war any where some how
— WHOLALA (@lekanmiola) December 22, 2019
The world is not free till people can practice their own religion without pressure nor fear.
The maltreatment & killing of Uyghur Muslims in China is barbaric & should be condemned.
Muslims are human too. #China_kills_Muslims
The world is big enough to contain all religion. pic.twitter.com/BZGmxi5798
— Mazi Anyasi (@anyasi_emma) December 22, 2019
We can’t just sit here and watch ppl die because of their religion keep sharing this. #الصِّين_بلد_إرهابي #China_is_terrorist #China_kills_Muslims pic.twitter.com/F39Q3gJJ1j
— mohamed elnassag (@mohamedelnssag) December 22, 2019
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