TikTok is blocking searches for WGA amid the ongoing writers strike

Users on TikTok searching for “WGA” are met with a screen claiming that the phrase “may be associated with behavior or content that violates our guidelines.” No videos return. Users are also unable to search for the “WGA” hashtag.

TikTok has also blocked the search term “WGA strike.”

Additionally, it appears that TikTok is blocking results from any simple search that includes “WGA” in the search term. Including “WGA” in addition to another word — like “WGA support” or “WGA strong” — blocks results.

Update (9/11/23): A TikTok spokesperson told Media Matters that “WGA has been inadvertently blocked as part of the platforms’ protections against QAnon conspiracy theories.” (WWG1WGA is a common QAnon phrase.) The spokesperson added that searches for “Writers Guild of America” and “Writers Guild of America Strike” were not impacted. Searches for “WGA” and related terms now appear to function normally.

(Thanks mike591, SCB, crowsby, and others for putting in the comments)

doctorcrimson,

Why would people even use TikTok? I don’t understand the idiocy.

thericcer,

Not the World Canadian Bureau!

K1nsey6,
@K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

Comes up fine for me

geosoco,

What's with people not reading?

From the article which has also been updated in the blurb.

Update (9/11/23): A TikTok spokesperson told Media Matters that “WGA has been inadvertently blocked as part of the platforms’ protections against QAnon conspiracy theories.” (WWG1WGA is a common QAnon phrase.) The spokesperson added that searches for “Writers Guild of America” and “Writers Guild of America Strike” were not impacted. Searches for “WGA” and related terms now appear to function normally.

K1nsey6,
@K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

Whats up with OP keeping a post up when the title no longer corroborates the story contents?

geosoco,

Because everyone else in here can read and they understand how time works.

K1nsey6,
@K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

Youre keeping it up for the clout

geosoco,

lol. that's a word I haven't heard in a long time. Yes, I definitely love doing a shit-ton of free labor for imaginary internet points. What is this clout and how is it going to help me? When does it unlock some money to pay my rent?

You think i'm indebted to you to do additional free labor because you didn't want to read the article or the blurb. I'm here to help build a community that isn't reddit by sharing stories that might have value to people. Doing that, means making posts and starting useful discussions.

For some reason, the f'n dregs of reddit came over who don't want to do work, but want to complain to everyone else to do it for them. In the past 4 weeks, I've been accused by commenters of so much stupid shit in the last 4 weeks. Today it's passing misinformation because you came into an article 24 hours after it was posted and wanted the title changed (despite that going against the posted rules). The other day it was bias because someone thought i wasn't posting enough news about a tech giant who wasn't generating news. I'm starting to doubt this will ever work because of some of the people here.

K1nsey6,
@K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

I didn’t say change the title, I said remove the post because it’s false info.

If the common denominator for all the issues in your last paragraph is you, the problem might be you.

geosoco,

lol. it's not false info. It just doesn't apply anymore, and it still has important info.

You still don't get misinfo.

RedAggroBest,

In a world where you can edit the title, cuz Lemmy, you would only leave that title to remain inflammatory.

wokehobbit,

Searches still come up on my wife, mine, and a friends… Stop spreading useless fake news.

geosoco,

Um TikTok confirmed that it was happening.

wokehobbit,

Good for them. I’m seeing EVIDENCE otherwise in front of my fucking face. But I digress, your sad ass generation doesn’t believe in actual hard proof.

geosoco,

lol. some people just can't read. It's both in the article and in the blurb above. -- that it was confirmed, why it happened, and that it's working.

Anonymousllama,

Looks like it was an inadvertent block according to the update on that article. At least there’s a reason for what’s happened

WaxedWookie,

Reminder: China isn’t communist - it somehow cares about worker enfranchisement even less than the US.

cynetri,
@cynetri@midwest.social avatar

TikTok is a product from a private company called ByteDance.

WaxedWookie,

I’m well aware - they approached me with a lucrative job offer years ago, which I declined because I knew who they were.

Are you so naiive as to imagine that a major social media platform headquartered in Beijing is not censoring content at the direction of the CCP when there’s multiple, credible sources pointing to collusion between them?

TikTok executive refuses Jake Tapper’s multiple requests to acknowledge China’s treatment of Uyghurs

TikTok’s owner is helping China’s campaign of repression in Xinjiang, report finds

Xinjiang’s TikTok wipes away evidence of Uyghur persecution

Exclusive: ByteDance censored anti-China content in Indonesia until mid-2020

Revealed: how TikTok censors videos that do not please Beijing

Here’s the TikTok CEO addressing Congress as it relates to their management of US data.

I wonder if you’ll:

  • Engage the point (to fight a losing battle),
  • Pivot to whataboutism and American diabolism that fails to engage the point, or
  • Do the smartest thing under the circumstances (assuming you’re incapable of learning) and quietly skulk away.
stevedidWHAT,
@stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world avatar

Jesus Christ he’s dead bro leave ‘em now! 😂

WaxedWookie,

They brought the stupid - I just turned a spotlight on it.

jaybone,

Looks like he replied with a wall of text, from beyond the grave lol.

cynetri,
@cynetri@midwest.social avatar

Of course ByteDance is influenced by its government, every company is. And to more of an extent in China, because China is governed by a communist-inspired party who seeks to crush bourgeois influence.

My point is that this instance is much more likely an example of ByteDance doing pretty normal, if stupid, private company things. Hell, TikTok itself doesn’t even exist in China. They do have a very similar sister app, Doiyin, but operations between the two are ultimately separate.

According to the article in the post, this suppression of the writer’s strike was related to its effort to remove QAnon-related content from the platform. Apparently some QAnon acronym has WGA in it, and sure, you can dismiss that statement as deflection, and I wouldn’t fault you for it. But then I raise this question:

What does China stand to gain suppressing information about a strike in the US?

It doesn’t help anyone here be more pro-communist, if anything they would push pro-union content for that. China’s image isn’t being emboldened in the US for this, as your comment clearly shows it makes it worse. It makes far more sense for TikTok’s US operations to be suppressing pro-union information, whether at the request of other companies or their own enrichment. But even then, that would easily be spotted and called out, as it did even still. I believe China has far more to gain with its existing spy operations and suppression of internal affairs such as Xinjiang than it does with a labor strike in an entirely sifferent country that its own citizens likely have little, if any, knowledge about.

I don’t like China’s government, by the way. The reason I say all this isn’t to defend them, the reason I do it is because people tend to blame all of Chinese companies’ bad decisions on China itself instead of the companies. Intentionally or not, it absolves the companies of wrongdoing and puts it on China. While China obviously deserves plenty of criticism, from people of all ideologies, this situation just isn’t relevant to that discussion. I also suspect the mass panic surrounding Chinese influence is in no insignificant part manufactured to make the US populace okay with going to war over Taiwan. This isn’t anything new, remember Iraq’s WMDs? I want people to focus on fixing our own, very significant issues, here at home before turning attention overseas. This applies to other countries too but that’s out of scope for this discussion.

That being said, you’re right, I’m not going to continue. Not because I’m not interested in good faith discussion, as my wall of text implies, but because you straight up insulted me and that’s a dick move. My comment might have sounded stern, and I apologize for not clarifying my tone, but you didn’t need to go full Reddit warrior at the end of your comment either. To assume you’d “win” a discussion, instead of engaging to learn the other side, is pathetic and insulting.

WaxedWookie,

China has less worker enfranchisement than the US - they’re not communist, or communist-inspired - they’re just red-coded authoritarian state capitalist. The only “unions” that exist in China are government-controlled - actual collectivisation is a meaningful threat to them, and as I’ve already pointed out, TikTok are pretty happy to censor narratives like this the CCP don’t like.

If you get your panties in a bunch and drawn away from a point because some dickhead on the internet decided not to handle you with kid gloves, stepping away is a good call. There’s not much changing of minds in forums like these, and not much point to civility politics with that being the case.

cynetri,
@cynetri@midwest.social avatar

Why the transphobia? I clearly use he/him pronouns, why would you mention panties? Not cool.

You could’ve engaged in a civil manner, there absolutely was room for civility politics. Don’t accuse me of getting pissy first when you called me “stupid” in another comment before I said another word. You made it toxic. My initial comment was nothing but objective in content.

WaxedWookie,

Your initial comment was factual, but more important, it was both irrelevant and misleading. It revealed a dishonest agenda you’ve only reenforced since.

Do you want to go ahead and finish joining the dots on that transphobia accusation, or should I jump straight to pointing out what a piece of shit you are for disingenuously using a marginalised community as a human shield rather than walking away from a point you’re clearly incapable of engaging as you lied you would?

stevedidWHAT,
@stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world avatar

“Panties in a bunch” = misogynistic? Yes. “…” = Transphobia? Come on.

You’re stretching here for a win a la victimizing yourself. If you are actually trans and this was a mistake (I hope you realize to be one) I really hope you take this to heart. Y’all need as much support as you can get and making blatantly false allegations like this against people is just gonna hurt your cause.

Unless you’re a troll and this is what you want and tan out of brain juice so you flipped the ol switxh and goo goo ga ga’d your way out of being responsible for your life.

cynetri,
@cynetri@midwest.social avatar

I jumped to transphobia because of my personal experience with gender. Yes, misogyny is a better word. That’s not a mark on trans people though, I’m not the one attacking people’s identities here.

stevedidWHAT,
@stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world avatar

Christ you really just can’t take this one on the cheek huh.

Part of being an adult (purposefully not using the term being a man here as a note) is recognizing that sometimes we don’t speak clearly enough and sometimes we misunderstand each other.

I can sympathize with your prior experience causing bias but maturity is recognizing your biases every day, ahead of time, and fight against it. It’s absolutely not a mark on trans people but it sure does fuel the other side which is not what we want.

NuPNuA,

Come off it, “get your panties in a bunch/knickers in a twist” is a common phrase in the English language.

stevedidWHAT,
@stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world avatar

I do totally agree with your last paragraph

K1nsey6,
@K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

The Uyghur thing is red scare propaganda bullshit along the same lines as ‘Free Tibet’

WaxedWookie,

Rather than pointing out how you’re wrong, I’ll just ask - what’s your point in this context?

Even if that were true (and it isn’t), it doesn’t materially affect my point.

JasSmith,

Reminder: America isn’t a capitalist country because there are antitrust laws.

/s

buzz,
@buzz@lemmy.world avatar

Bring back the peripheral show assholes

over_clox,

But assholes are common equipment…

I_Miss_Daniel,
@I_Miss_Daniel@kbin.social avatar

Hmm. How will I hack my Windows XP to activate it if I can't search for Windows Genuine Advantage?

burrito,

I miss the good ’ ol FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8 days.

heliosef,

I wouldn’t be surprised if that was off the top of your head.

burrito,

Only the first five characters

Kangie,

I still know my old XP VLK.

CM3HY-26VYW-…

over_clox,

tinyurl.com/winxphactivator

You’re welcome.

crowsby,
@crowsby@lemmy.world avatar

Update (9/11/23): A TikTok spokesperson told Media Matters that “WGA has been inadvertently blocked as part of the platforms’ protections against QAnon conspiracy theories.” Searches for “WGA” and related terms now appear to function normally.

comedy,
@comedy@kbin.social avatar

Well that's good

MoogleMaestro,
@MoogleMaestro@kbin.social avatar

This is good to know and I'm glad to hear.

As an aside, do we have a system for OP to pin this comment to the top? This context is pretty important.

NevermindNoMind,

For those fortunate enough to be out of the loop, one of the qanon catch phrases is “Where we go one we go all” which is some bastardized version of the three musketeers “all for one, one for all.” It’s often abbreviated as WWGOWGA, which you’ll see on bumper stickers to helpfully let you know the driver has completely lost touch of reality so you should give them plenty of space. I’ve never seen it shortened to WGA, but that is plausible.

SCB,

You left out the best part, which is like 90% of QAnon shit, they stole it from a movie. This is from the movie “White Squall.”

QAnon people are fucking crazy man. How does anyone fall for this shit?

captainlezbian,

Because we have a cultic milieu and it’s an extremely syncretic conspiracy theory. Never quite got past the satanic panic? Q is fighting the Satanists who made rent too damn high. Think aliens control the government? They’re working with the Satanists but they’re on the beat of ensuring your kids disagree with you after going to college. Aware that the rich are the enemy? Trump is secretly at war with the elites. Just a massive fucking bigot? Who do you think the elites are? No seriously you can copy and paste the group you hate in there, it could be anyone that isn’t a majority, they could be redheads for all Q cares.

Qanon has absorbed everything from the new world order (alien edition, but also the other ones too) to flat earth to satanic panic to NESARA to the fucking protocols of the elders of Zion and cultural Bolshevism (though they call it cultural Marxism but still blame Jews). These are all things that used to get you laughed out of a room if not beaten up but now there’s an audience who will “yes and” the most deluded bullshit you can imagine.

SCB,

Yeah this is a great point. I’d seen all the data points there but didn’t really put together that’s it’s become this sort of meta-conspiracy that is almost infinitely malleable.

captainlezbian,

If it makes you feel any worse it’s not the first conspiracy theory to do that. Cultural Bolshevism fulfilled a similar role in the 1930s. It incorporated fears of Jews, Jesuits, Freemasons, homosexuals, communists… and yeah it went exactly how 1930s Europe went.

It’s important to remember, who and what only matters a bit. They aren’t attached to the fact that it’s aliens, they’re attached to the fact that it’s scary and unknown others who don’t think like them and they have to be responsible for everything getting worse. It’s why antisemitism is skyrocketing at the moment. Who that other is is absolutely irrelevant. Hate can be channeled where it needs gone.

over_clox,

That’s a big wall of text to say QAnon is now run by a 13 year old girl.

captainlezbian,

But it doesn’t have to be. It’s eternally in power flux until people start breaking out of it. She holds power now but remember what happened when trump said to get vaccinated. They’ll kill their heroes easily.

over_clox,

What the fuck is wrong with you? Seriously…?

over_clox,

I’m not here to talk B/S…

lemmy.world/post/3453314

TwoGems,
@TwoGems@lemmy.world avatar

I dunno they need to be thrown in wards or something. It’s like many of our parents and entire families infected by the Qanon.

SCB,

What’s weird is even smart people buy into it. My last boss is an amazing, caring, brilliant woman. She’s a senior leader at a Fortune 100 company!

She got into Q via New Age hippie shit, which she got into after a bad divorce and “rediscovering” herself. Now she believes in vampires. It’s mind boggling.

TwoGems,
@TwoGems@lemmy.world avatar

These people need an intervention. You can’t be all that smart buying into reptilians and Jewish laser space beams. Or they have dementia or something.

SCB,

Smart people can believe dumb shit because smart people are still just people

p03locke,
@p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

A lack of critical thinking skills.

fruitleatherpostcard,

Fetal alcohol syndrome.

ShittyBeatlesFCPres,

They probably used some bad RegEx like ^.*WGA$ because the QAnon people swap the “O” out for a “1” sometimes and the dev tasked with blocking QAnon shit was like, “Fuck it. I’m blocking it all.”

Sinthesis,

BULLSHIT. China doesn’t want their citizens witnessing workforce strikes; especially ones where the celebrities striking are on Chinese TVs and movie screens.

SaltySalamander,
@SaltySalamander@kbin.social avatar

Do you legitimately think people in China see the same Tiktok that we do?

Marsupial,
@Marsupial@quokk.au avatar

Chinese people aren’t on TikTok.

They’re on Douyin and sand boxed away from any of that Western democracy and freedom concepts.

K1nsey6,
@K1nsey6@lemmy.world avatar

freedom concepts

Thats funny, There are no concepts of freedom in the US unless you are wealthy

KingThrillgore,
@KingThrillgore@lemmy.ml avatar

riiiight

captainlezbian,

Ok yeah accidentally mistaking it for an abbreviation of wwg1wga makes sense actually

lud,

wwg1wga

Huh, what a terrible initialism.

Syrc,

The spokesperson added that searches for “Writers Guild of America” and “Writers Guild of America Strike” were not impacted.

Ok, if that’s true I can believe that.

sadreality,

These guys can't even commie right...

Jfc...

Does anyone even care about the plight of labour anymore? Politically wise?

meldroc,

I was thinking the same thing!

Strikebreaking for the Glorious Worker’s Revolution! That’s how it’s supposed to work, right?

TwilightVulpine,

China? The source of most products keeping our capitalist world going? What about it was supposed to be communist again?

FlightSimEnjoyer,

???

That’s TikTok, from a private corporation. They do not represent the CPC or the Chinese Government.

dept,

even private Chinese companies have to adhere to the CCP’s guidelines and requests.

sadreality,

American companies do the same tho... but point stands all around.

NO such thing is "private sector" only thing that's private is the "HOLY PROFIT" any losses covered by labour that generated the profit, or not

meldroc,

TikTok’s parent corporation is strongly tied to the Chinese gov’t and the CCP. So yes, they do, though of course they deny it…

boredtortoise,

China doesn’t want people to know about the strength of unity

fubo,

My guess is that the studios and/or right-wing trolls reported WGA posts as abuse, and “the algorithm” did the rest.

Nurgle,

Yeah my algo plays a fair amount of WGA content.

meldroc,

Yep. Another problem with allowing content to be spoon-fed to us by The Algorithm.

cmdrmoto,
@cmdrmoto@artemis.camp avatar

Yet another demonstration of the dangers of allowing a communication channel to be controlled by an entity whose motives aren’t aligned with what the users of that channel actually want / need.

Fediverse is the best collective action I can think of against this kind of censorship.

JasSmith,

It’s been wild over the last few years to see authoritarians cheering on corporate social media censorship, as though it will never be turned on them.

Fuck censorship.

Loid,

Why would it turn against them? It aligns perfectly with their ideology.

AfricanExpansionist,

Oh but didn’t you hear? China is a paradise for workers and definitely not capitalist in any way

deweydecibel,

Fediverse is the best collective action I can think of against this kind of censorship.

The ideal if the Fediverse, yes. The reality of it, with Lemmy in particular, is that we have admins with the power to censor or curate as they wish, and while they may not be able to censor the entire fediverse, if they control a large chunk of it, it still has an effect on what users can see.

JasSmith,

It’s not perfect, but I’m beginning to think it’s the best we will get. It’s probably the best we deserve. So many instances immediately turned into r/Politics. Proving that it wasn’t Reddit which was infested with brain rot. It’s the users.

PP_BOY_,
@PP_BOY_@lemmy.world avatar

The CCP has a more active presence on Lemmy than TikTok

Syrc,

The CCP controls the entirety of TikTok. Here you might have some instances controlled by tankies and a higher percentage of tankie users, but the vast majority of instances are managed by “normal” people.

tonytins,
@tonytins@pawb.social avatar

WTF? What do they gain or lose from all of this!?

cyanarchy,

My guy do you really not understand the shared desire of corporations to prevent solidarity and organization among workers?

tonytins,
@tonytins@pawb.social avatar

I get that. I just didn’t see how TikTok benefited from all of this directly. Then someone reminded me that they’re from China, and it all made sense now.

Alto,
@Alto@kbin.social avatar

Realistically the only way China is particularly relevant here is just how blatant it is. It's in the interest of all corporations to suppress pro-union sentiment.

dartos,

Probably money. Given enough money, I’m sure tiktok will ban any search term

astraeus,
@astraeus@programming.dev avatar

How often do you think organized protest goes uninterrupted by force in mainland China?

tonytins,
@tonytins@pawb.social avatar

Oh! Right. I keep forgetting they’re in China.

meldroc,

Yep. All for their Glorious Marxist/Maoist Revolution! Yep. That’s sure creating a worker’s paradise…

sadreality,

Communism for proles, lux lyf for xipooh

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