Press Release
·TikTok Targets Largest Pro-Life Organization Online, Removes and Bans Account Entirely
For Immediate Release
Jan. 31st, 2020
Alison Howard Centofante
Director of External Affairs, Live Action
alisoncentofante@liveaction.org
609-517-7235
TikTok Targets Largest Pro-Life Organization Online,
Removes and Bans Account Entirely
Washington, DC – TikTok, the popular social media platform used to create and share short music videos, has removed and banned the account of Live Action, the leading digital pro-life organization with the largest following in the pro-life movement online and the largest pro-life voice on TikTok. TikTok has over 800 million active users and states that their mission is ‘to capture and present the world’s creativity, knowledge, and precious life moments, directly from the mobile phone.’ Live Action reached out to TikTok for clarity on why the account was removed and what community guidelines it violated and has not received a response.
Backgrounder and timeline below for more information.
Statement from Live Action Director of External Affairs, Alison Howard Centofante:
“Live Action joined TikTok in 2019 as part of our ongoing efforts to reach Gen Z and Millennials with the truth about abortion and to continue to solidify our role as digital leaders in the nonprofit space. Tiktok has a larger active user base than Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, and Snapchat. Its user base is nearly as big as Instagram. Our innovative, educational videos were hugely popular and grew our following to over 21k followers, quickly making Live Action the largest pro-life voice on the platform. Live Action’s videos shared baby photos and videos and highlighted the illogic of the pro-abortion movement. At the same time, TikTok allows pro-abortion accounts and videos to remain on the platform, videos like this that simulate brutal harm to preborn or born infants. Live Action appealed TikTok’s decision to remove one of our videos and within a half hour our account was completely removed on the platform. No more account, no more videos. This is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an egregious attempt to silence pro-life voices. TikTok should reinstate our account in full and allow all voices on the platform.”
BACKGROUND and TIMELINE:
At 1:26PM EST on January 30th, 2020 Live Action posted an educational video to our TikTok highlighting lives saved by our content & raising awareness of the importance of speaking out on abortion. This is the video removed by TikTok- https://f.io/fkFAcRqp
The video follows a popular TikTok trend, see a sample here
At 2:30PM EST we were notified our video “violated community guidelines” and it was deleted.
Tiktok’s community guidelines are here.
Immediately after being notified of the violation, we appealed the removal.
And at 3PM EST Live Action was completely BANNED from the platform. TikTok stated “this account was banned due to multiple Community Guidelines violations.”
The ban comes after Live Action grew an engaged user base of 21,000 followers since joining the platform 4 months ago in August of 2019.
Live Action is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to exposing the truth about abortion and affirming the life of every child. Live Action exists to change hearts and minds about abortion through compelling educational media, human interest stories, and investigative reporting that exposes the lies and corruption in the abortion industry. With the largest online following in the pro-life movement, Live Action’s videos and content reach millions of people every week. Find out more at http://www.liveaction.org
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