Launching a massive boycott campaign for “Tik Tok” due to its bias against Saudi content

Social media pioneers in Saudi Arabia, and a large number of celebrities and artists, launched a boycott campaign for “Tik Tok,” noting that the application “deletes” content related to the Kingdom.

Social media users resorted to “X”, “Facebook” and “Instagram” to announce their boycott of “Tik Tok”, pointing out the application’s bias against Saudi content, so that any posts related to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia would be deleted immediately, and they accompanied these allegations with screenshots. It appears that TikTok has deleted a number of posts. 

The wave of anger also led users to go to the Google Play and Apple Store stores to lower the app's rating.

In response to this campaign, the official website of TikTok in the Middle East issued an official statement,  part of which was published on the “X” platform, saying: “We at TikTok are proud of our community in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which is a source of inspiration for creativity in various fields.”

The statement explains: “There is no truth to the rumors circulating regarding TikTok deleting content related to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We strongly reject these allegations because they are inconsistent with our policies and values ​​and spread a misleading image of TikTok’s content management policies. TikTok pledges a set of community guidelines that include rules and standards.” Use of the platform.

He continued: “The guidelines apply to all people and all types of content on our platform. These guidelines stem from legal frameworks, industry best practices, contributions from our community, and safety and public health experts. We continue to develop them to address emerging risks and potential harm that may occur as a result of new behaviors.”

The statement added: “We want to note that these policies are implemented by our global and independent security and safety teams. The members of the Advisory Board or our employees do not interfere in the decisions taken by these teams, as is circulated on some social media, and we strongly reject the deliberate smear campaigns that It is practiced on our employees and partners and threatens their security and safety.”

The statement stressed: “We on the TikTok platform are proud to build a community that contributes effectively to the creative system worldwide, and we are also proud of our community in the Kingdom, which has been a source of inspiration for creativity in various fields. This community has also contributed to raising our global community’s awareness of Saudi culture, so that it has achieved the hashtag # WhereToVisitKSA has received more than 728 million views globally, and the hashtag #WhereToEatKSA has achieved more than a billion views globally. Saudi creative talent has also topped the scene, with #SaudiTalentWeek achieving more than 302.8 million views globally. In addition, we continue to monitor a number of unsubstantiated allegations against our platform. "There is no justification or logic for such organized action against us."

The statement concluded by calling on TikTok, all members of our community, to be careful when publishing information and to resort to us through existing channels and submit a direct appeal in our application if they believe that any content and/or account has been removed incorrectly.

Despite TikTok issuing this clarification statement, the boycott campaign is still ongoing, with a number of social media users saying that the statement is “false” and that they are continuing the boycott.