UPDATE: In a statement shared with Faithwire on Friday afternoon, a spokesperson for the video-sharing app TikTok said the pro-life group Live Action made “no violations” to the platform’s community standards.
The representative for TikTok went on to say the account had been banned as a “result of a human error by a moderator.” You can read more about that here.
The U.S. government is concerned TikTok might be a national security threat and its plagued with a nudity problem, but the head honchos of the video-sharing app are apparently more worried about the spread of pro-life content.
Lila Rose, founder and president of Live Action, a pro-life advocacy organization, tweeted Friday that TikTok removed a video posted by the group one day prior before deciding to ban the account altogether.
Alison Centofante, director of external affairs for Live Action, told Faithwire on Friday the pro-life group had experience no problems with TikTok before Thursday at around 2:30 p.m., about an hour after posting a video the social media platform removed, claiming the clip “violated community guidelines.”
Thirty minutes later, Live Action was completely banned from TikTok. The app has accused Live Action of “multiple community guideline violations,” Centofante said, but has so far offered no explanation for the accusation.
“It’s really disappointing,” she said, “because pro-abortion messages, and accounts, and videos are allowed on the platform, but not ours — not the pro-life side.”
It’s important to note, too, that Live Action was “playing very nicely” on TikTok, according to Centofante, by never posting graphic footage, such as its animations depicting what happens during abortion, to its account.
“TikTok was our next frontier, really,” she explained. “It was an amazing way to reach the next generation. The users are majority young people, young women, our demographic. And we grew to 21,000 followers in less than four months.”
Centofante pointed out that Live Action’s videos were “beautiful,” often highlighting women who have changed their minds on abortion thanks to the group’s efforts and “poking fun at how illogical the pro-abortion industry is.”
Despite banning Live Action from continuing to post its content due to ambiguous “violations,” TikTok has allowed disturbing videos like the one below to remain on the social media app.
“You can find videos that are simulating abortions, that are pretending to hurt young children, nudity, violence — things that should really be flagged, not our beautiful, winsome work,” Centofante said, later describing TikTok’s actions as “blatant discrimination.”
She went on to say Live Action is continuing to press TikTok, requesting specific details of how the pro-life group violated the app’s policies and asking for its account to be reinstated.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is likewise calling for accountability:
“We should all be encouraging and advocating for free speech on these massive platforms that are now our biggest way to consume news and to educate each other,” Centofante said.
This is not the first time Rose’s organization has faced discrimination. Last year, Pinterest labeled content posted by Live Action as pornographic before ultimately banning the group completely.
At the time, Rose said she believed Pinterest blocked Live Action from its platform “because our message is so effective at educating millions about the humanity of the preborn child and the injustice of abortion.”
Faithwire reached out to TikTok but has not yet received a response.