You may not care, but we Uyghurs are clear about one fact: TikTok is the genocidal arm of the Chinese government.
In 2021, at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, the Chinese government imposed a statewide lockdown starting from Wuhan, extending to the Uyghur homeland, so-called Xinjiang. Later, as mainstream media widely reported, the draconian system and authoritarian rule forced people to stay home, even without food and medical care. We saw desperate people take to Douyin (the Chinese version of TikTok controlled by Bytedance) and share videos of people crying for food and water. Many asked the authorities and community managers for help with basic daily needs, mostly food and medicine. Many jumped from high buildings to end their pain after local authorities did not answer their pleas and denied residents’ needs. People started to denounce the government. Among them were Uyghurs who shared their plight and demand for food.
In Ghulja and Urumqi, people shared videos on Douyin showing children dying from starvation and blaming the authorities for not coming to help. Some had quarrels with local authorities over not allowing people to share groceries and food with neighbors. To control this, the Chinese government issued statements scaring people from sharing videos showing their sorrows and pains. The Ghulja government declared they arrested some people for sharing content blaming the government. Later, many wrote comments that people were not allowed to share crying videos, mentioned destroyed mosques, and detained or killed parents. In November 2022, a fire in Urumqi led to the death of at least 44 Uyghurs, caused by the government’s discrimination against Uyghur lives. People shared videos about the fire, how children cried for help, and how the local police did not allow residents to escape from the burning building. After a week or so, these people disappeared. Hundreds of people and their accounts disappeared. Many young Uyghurs, some of whom praised and made red songs to seek help, vanished, including young Uyghurs who shared the death of a 5-year-old Uyghur girl in Ghula in September 2022. Douyin, at the first place, has a clear policy not to share or upload anything criticizing the Chinese government; it is stated in the user agreement section of the app in China not to share negative content, crying, or unhappy moments. Many cases show that Douyin helped the Chinese government to censor, track, and arrest Uyghur users who shared so-called sensitive content. The Uyghur Times has documented at least 20 individuals who vanished after sharing videos criticizing the Chinese government on TikTok between 2021 and 2023.The International Version of TikTok has a long history of suspending or suppressing users who share content criticizing the Chinese government. That is why you don’t see Uyghur activists on this platform; that is why so many people don’t know what is happening to the Uyghur people.You may not care, but we Uyghurs are clear about one fact: TikTok is the genocidal arm of the Chinese government.
