On February 8, 2022, as a part of Safer Internet Day, social media giant TikTok announced changes to its community guidelines which sees an array of anti-LGBTQ+ content being banned on the app. As a result of the updates, deadnaming and misgendering are officially prohibited, as too is content that “supports or promotes conversion therapy programs”.

TikTok explained that the new guidelines add “clarity on the types of hateful ideologies prohibited on our platform”, and Head of Trust and Safety, Cormac Keenan, added that “Though these ideologies have long been prohibited on TikTok, we’ve heard from creators and civil society organisations that it’s important to be explicit in our Community Guidelines.

“On top of this, we hope our recent feature enabling people to add their pronouns will encourage respectful and inclusive dialogue on our platform,” he stated.

Happy #SaferInternetDay! Today we're announcing updates to our Community Guidelines to further support the well-being of our community and the integrity of our platform. Learn more in our Newsroom: https://t.co/CyMJ6EI2CT

— TikTokComms (@TikTokComms) February 8, 2022

The updates come following pressure from LGBTQ+ charity GLAAD, alongside UltraViolet, who made recommendations to the social media platform in 2021 as part of its Social Media Safety Index. Although the app is hugely popular among the queer community, at the time, GLAAD declared it as “effectively unsafe for LGBTQ users”.

The time is now for other social media companies to take similar actions and use the recommendations made in our Social Media Safety Index to protect LGBTQ users on their platforms.https://t.co/pKZ7zcMv3b

— GLAAD (@glaad) February 8, 2022

After Tuesday’s announcement, CEO and President of GLAAD, Sarah Kate Ellis, commended TikTok for taking action to “prioritise LGBTQ safety”.

“When anti-transgender actions like misgendering or deadnaming, or the promotion of so-called ‘conversion therapy,’ occur on platforms like TikTok, they create an unsafe environment for LGBTQ people online and too often lead to real-world harm,” she stated.

“TikTok’s move to expressly prohibit this harmful content in its Community Guidelines and to adopt recommendations made in GLAAD’s 2021 Social Media Safety Index raises the standard for LGBTQ safety online and send a message that other platforms which claim to prioritise LGBTQ safety should follow suit with substantive actions like these.”

Clarity has also been offered from the app surrounding its policies on things like the promotion of dangerous acts and challenges, eating disorders, and misogyny.