TikTok is in some hot water after a user reported an era that blocked users from seeing the tags “#BlackLivesMatter” and “#GeorgeFloyd,” among other hashtags related to the recent police murder of George Floyd.
The error was caught by a user who noticed that he was unable to see the tags while attempting to upload a video to the platform, and called the social networking site out. This triggered a response from TikTok, who issued the following statement:
“We are aware of an issue that is impacting the hashtag view counts displayed at the upload stage. This appears to affect words at random, including terms like #cat and #hello. Our team is investigating and working quickly to address the issue.”
A spokesperson for the social media app also told TheWrap that view counts on the app of the hashtags #GeorgeFloyd and #BlackLivesMatter have been fixed as well. TikTok made it clear the issue was not specific to these hashtags, adding, “This appears to affect words at random, including terms like #cat and #hello. This bug is affecting view count displays on hashtags at random in the Compose screen only, but it is not affecting tags, videos, or discovery of uploaded content. Our team is investigating and working quickly to address the issue. We apologize for the confusion this is causing.”
TikTok was also accused of censorship back in March after they were accused of taking down videos of Lizzo in a bathing suit, with other women claiming the same thing happened to them. The company denied any wrongdoing.