In less than three weeks (September 13th) TikTok's global community guidelines change. And something's clearly going on with the US and TikTok, because these new policies reflect a much different agenda. One that unfortunately aligns really well with what we're (USA) going through politically right now.
People need to know about this. The wording in these changes is huge, and we all need to be talking about it:
The Crisis Clause: Your Rights, Suspended
Buried in the Community Principles section is this gem:
"In rare and exceptional situations, such as crises or moments of social unrest, we may adjust our usual enforcement or rules to protect our community and address emerging harms."
"Rare and exceptional" could mean protests, strikes, elections, or literally anything TikTok's moderation team decides constitutes a "crisis." No advance notice required.
Pre-Crime Content Moderation
The Shocking and Graphic Content section now targets "content that shows the build up to serious injury or accident even if the injury itself is not shown."
This isn't about protecting users from gore—it's about controlling narrative. Video of police drawing weapons on protesters? Gone. ICE agents approaching someone on the street? Removed. The context that helps us understand how situations escalate gets scrubbed before we can see it.
Previous policy: Age-restricted graphic war/disaster content
New policy: Age-restricted AND buried from For You feeds
Gaza documentation, Ukraine war crimes, natural disaster coverage—all hit with double suppression.
The "Trust in Institutions" Trap
Perhaps most telling is this addition to the misinformation policy:
Content "that poses an elevated risk of undermining the integrity of the information ecosystem or eroding trust in institutions, organisations or businesses" will be suppressed.
Businesses. They literally wrote corporate criticism into their censorship policy.
My entire platform centers on exposing tech company data abuse, predatory ToS changes, and government-corporate surveillance partnerships. Under these guidelines, that's now "misinformation" that "erodes trust in businesses."
Selective Free Speech
While independent voices get restricted, the Civic and Election Integrity section creates a carve-out for power:
Old policy: No political advertising, period.
New policy: Government and intergovernmental entities can advertise if "certified to work with TikTok's internal team."
Grassroots organizers promote content organically. State institutions can flood feeds with messaging designed to look neutral. Heading into midterms, this creates a massive information imbalance.
It's Already Happening
I'm seeing early implementation:
Hashtag limits dropping from 5 to 4 (soon to be 3?)
Platform flagging private criticism of government actions as "graphic content"
Automatic suggestions to block users sharing political dissent
The system is conditioning us to see political criticism as dangerous content.
What We Do Next
Follow your favorite independent journalists everywhere: Patreon, YouTube, Substack, wherever they post. Platform diversification is survival.
Keep comment sections loud. Engagement signals matter across platforms.
Share this information widely. The more people understand what's coming, the better we can prepare.
Stay united. These changes are designed to fragment our communities, especially heading into midterms. Our collective voice is what they're trying to break.
What changes have you noticed on your own feeds? Share your experiences in the comments—let's document this shift together.
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