US teenager's TikTok video on Uyghur 'concentration camps' in China's Xinjiang goes viral
Nov 24 2019
A US teenager whose TikTok video about the detention of Uyghur Muslims in China went viral says her account has now been blocked by the Chinese-owned social network.
Key points:
- The short clip was disguised as a make-up tutorial
- It has been watched more than 1.4 million times and "liked" nearly 500,000 times on TikTok
- She referred to China's mass detention as "another Holocaust"
Feroza Aziz managed to have the 40-second video spread across the platform by disguising it as a short make-up tutorial, before accusing China of setting up "concentration camps" and "throwing innocent Muslims in there".
The clip has been watched more than 1.4 million times and "liked" nearly 500,000 times on the app.
The 17-year-old posted on Twitter that TikTok has since blocked her account.
"I am blocked from posting on tik tok for a month. This won't silence me," she wrote.
This has been disputed by TikTok.
A spokesperson for the company said the user "would still be able to post to this account as it is an active account".
The spokesperson said TikTok had banned a previous account belonging to Ms Aziz "after she posted a video of Osama bin Laden, which is a violation of TikTok's ban on content that includes imagery related to terrorist organisations".
"Another account of hers — including the eyelash video in question — [was] not affected and the video continues to receive views," the spokesperson said in an email.
"TikTok does not moderate content due to political sensitivities."
In her most recent Instagram post, she addressed why she made the video and referred to China's mass detention as "another Holocaust".
"Hi guys, I made a video about the situation in China with how the government is capturing the Uyghur Muslims and placing them into concentration camps.
"Once you enter these camps, you're lucky if you get out. Innocent humans are being murdered, tortured, raped, receiving shock therapy, and so much more that I can't even describe.
"They are holding a genocide against Muslims and they're getting away with it.
"The UN failed to stop this genocide in the summer, we can't let that happen again. We can't be silent on another Holocaust that is bound to happen.
"Spreading awareness does wonders," Ms Aziz said.
"We got the UN to step in and help Sudan because we spread awareness, so we can do the same thing for China. "
Earlier this year the United States and more than 30 countries condemned what they called China's "horrific campaign of repression" against the Uyghur Muslim minority in the western region of Xinjiang.
Since 2017, more than 1 million members of the province's Muslim minorities have been rounded up, detained and subjected to a program of mass indoctrination in a network of "vocational training" camps spread over the region in China's far west.
China says the camps are aimed at stamping out extremism.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments always welcome!