LOS ANGELES, May 4 — TikTok has it all planned out. During the month of May in the United States, the Chinese-based social network intends to honour the Asian community.
With the hashtags #WeAreAPI and #AsianTikTok, the platform intends to give a voice to creators, especially through Live seances The social network has also announced donations for several associations fighting against discrimination.
The United States is still reeling from the numerous attacks against members of its Asian community.
After the Atlanta shooting, the country witnessed the murder of Shane Nguyen, a 55-year-old man found dismembered on Sunday, April 25 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Hate acts against the Asian-American community have exploded during the covid-19 pandemic.
With this in mind, TikTok has decided to encourage its creators in the Asian community to share their experiences online this May.
In the United States, May is dedicated to Asian American and Pacific Islander (API) Heritage Month.
“This year, it’s more important than ever to come together to support the API community,” said the popular social network on its blog.
Live streams each week
TikTok has announced weekly community virtual events on its platform throughout the entire month to highlight the stories of these creators, without specifying the exact schedule: “We’ll also be hosting weekly virtual community events, including TikTok LIVE streams, and API creator and small business spotlights, to celebrate the impact API creators have made in the community,” explained the app’s blog.
“Each week, we’ll host TikTok LIVEs that showcase the pride, diversity and strength of the API community, including “This is Activism,” “Styling and Shining,” “Kitchen Chronicles,” and “History is Happening,” it detailed.
The platform will also highlight community businesses through #SpotlightAPI while six popular TikTokers will partner with certain small businesses to help them break through on the social network.
In addition to these virtual appointments, the platform has launched new stickers to be added to TiKTokers’ video creations to celebrate this Asian heritage month.
US$275,000 donated to charity
In addition to an increased focus on influencers from the Asian and Pacific Islander community, the Chinese social network revealed that it has made a donation of US$275,000 (RM1.13 million) to certain non-profit organisations.
These associations fight against inequality and racial injustice, providing programmes and resources to these communities at the local level. TikTok cited “Asian Mental Health Collective” and “Hate is a Virus” among others.
And the involvement of the most downloaded app in 2020 doesn’t end there as TikTok announced it is sponsoring the third annual “National AAPI Day Against Bullying+Hate“ event, to counter discrimination against the community.
“With the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes, we remain vigilant and work to identify and remove hateful content if it manifests on our platform.
For instance, at the start of the pandemic, we banned “kungflu” and other slurs used against these communities,” TikTok outlined. — ETX Studio
