Drive

If you’ve been on the Internet lately, or if you know any teenagers, you’ve probably heard about the video-sharing social network, TikTok. Having blessed the world with Lil Nas X, as well as hours upon hours of short videos, TikTok has successfully branded itself as creative, silly, and trend-setting. But it came to light last year that some content on TikTok had been censored due to personal politics and identity. Is TikTok’s censorship a preservation of positivity in its online community, or is it more of an overreach?

We chatted with Dr. Paul Byron, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Digital and Social Media from the University of Technology Sydney, about TikTok, content moderation, and online communities.