Trans model and actor Laith Ashley is calling out TikTok after he says he was unjustly suspended from going live.
Ashley says that he was just sitting down talking with his followers about last year’s Hollywood strikes and the current struggles faced by LGBTQ+ content creators because of the way social media algorithms are inclined to penalize them.
“You’ve seen them limiting people if their content is too political. Well now, my transness is political,” he explained in a later video in which he recounted the contents of his live. “So me being trans and posting about me being who I am is political. So I’m not going to get the reach because the app is going to limit the reach that I would have gotten otherwise, even with my following. So if I can’t get a reach, the brands aren’t going to want to utilize me to promote their product.”
Almost as if TikTok wanted to prove his point, he was then “kicked off” with a notification that his access to livestreaming had been removed. The screenshot he shared to Instagram showed that the reason cited was “sexual activity and services.”
Ashley is hardly the first creator to report issues with social media platforms equating the mere existence of sexuality or gender identity with “sexual activity” or the like. And even in his comments, people were sharing their frustrations with the way things like this continue to happen.
“Someone reported you on purpose…cause there is no way sitting and talking is sexual,” wrote @planetsierra. “I see this all the time.”
"They did it to me too as soon as I started answering questions about my transition,” @kiah.naomi added.
“TikTok’s live policing on our community is deplorable to say the least,” @kerricolby wrote, “you are always full of love.”
Laith later elaborated via Instagram Stories that he’s not just angry about social media platforms, but at the way this is indicative of a larger issue going on.
“It’s the silencing. And it’s happening at every level. It’s the erasure. It’s the victimizing folks and then blaming them for their own oppression,” he said. “That’s what’s bothering me. That’s what’s making me very angry.”
According to an additional screenshot he shared to his Stories, his appeal to have his livestreaming abilities reinstated was denied within just 13 minutes of putting in the request.
@laith_ashley/Instagram
