Chinese Communist Party-affiliated TikTok “permanently banned” Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America after the Supreme Court overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision on Friday. The platform later quietly reinstated the account.
Screenshots Susan B. Anthony Pro-life America (SBA) sent to MRC Free Speech America indicate that TikTok has “permanently banned” the SBA account “due to multiple violations of our Community Guidelines.”
TikTok ignored MRC Free Speech America’s question about which community guideline(s) the account violated. Instead, the platform apologized for the ban, claiming that “the account was reinstated in a few minutes”.
“It’s a complete lie that our account has only been suspended for a few minutes,” Andrew Moore, director of SBA Digital and Creative, told MRC Free Speech America. He later added that SBA “couldn’t post” and that his team “tried to log in multiple times on Friday and couldn’t get in”.
Moore also cited TikTok’s “lack of transparency about suspensions” and “lack of communication”.
SBA’s screenshots indicate that the platform reinstated the group’s account sometime on Friday, though it’s unclear exactly what time. It’s also unclear why an immediate restore would continue to prevent SBA from logging into its account.
Click Like if you’re pro-life to like the LifeNews Facebook page!
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-affiliated app presented itself as pro-abortion after the Supreme Court overthrew Roe v. Wade over the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling issued Friday. “We are committed to ensuring that our employees have access to a wide range of medical benefits, including family and reproductive care, wherever they live,” tweeted TikTok Comms.
The SBA incident wasn’t the first time TikTok had suddenly banned a pro-life organization and quickly reinstated the account.
TikTok has reportedly banned Live Action after censoring one of its videos. Live Action founder and president Lila Rose tweeted in January 2020, “TikTok just BANNED Live Action and permanently removed it from the platform.” The pro-life organization stated in a blog that TikTok initially claimed it had banned Live Action for “violations of the Community Guidelines”. The group said TikTok reinstated the account a day later, attributing the ban to “human errors.” The platform banned Students for Life of America in April without explanation. In an April blog post, students for Life of America (SFLA) stated that it had been “banned from TikTok for ‘multiple community guidelines violations'”. I was debating with a student about abortion. The organization said it had “no opportunity to appeal,” but the platform reinstated SFLA’s account.
SBA, Live Action, and SFLA are members of the Free Speech Alliance.
LifeNews Note: Gabriela Pariseau writes for Newsbusters, where this column originally appeared.