Fan Armies Are Harassing Gay and Trans People on TikTok

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Many young TikTok creators are realising how inadequate the platform can be at protecting users from harassment.

Chris smiles widely as a video of Miso Chan, a transgender creator presenting as a young woman with pink hair, plays next to him. A song with the lyrics “Now I know what’s real and what is fake,” loops in the background.

Chris, who is 17 and uses the name @Donelij online, has grown an enormous audience on TikTok. Before his account was banned Tuesday he had amassed more than 2.5 million followers. Another one of his accounts had more than 2.2 million followers, but, Friday afternoon, both of Chris’ backup TikTok accounts were banned as well. Chris’ account is known in the TikTok community as a reaction account, an account where someone creates reaction videos that appear alongside other TikToks.

Chris said he had no ill intent with his videos and said, before his accounts were banned, that he would stop duetting members of the LGBTQ community. Any creator who speaks out against Chris’ content inevitably receives a wave of threats and harassment. After Toby Phillips, 20, posted a soft-spoken ’90s-style PSA video asking Chris to take responsibility for his fans’ behavior, he too suffered for it.As the controversy began trending Thursday, popular creators began to weigh in, including the children of several politicians and celebrities.

He also said he was frustrated with his fans’ behavior. He said that he’s spoken out several times on his TikTok account asking people to stop making homophobic comments but that ultimately he can’t control the millions of people who follow him and that they interpret his pleas to “spread positivity” as a covert directive to attack.

 

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