A sound clip that says, “And remember, kids, the next time somebody tells you the government wouldn’t do that – oh, yes, they would,” has recently gained popularity on TikTok.
Many users have shared videos that express their criticisms of government actions using this trending sound.
However, some users have noticed that, upon clicking on the sound, only the top 19 videos show up under this sound, and all other videos are hidden, despite there being 36,000 videos using the audio.
This has led some users to speculate that TikTok may be censoring videos that use this sound in order to prevent the spread of anti-government sentiment on the platform.
One TikToker even reported that when she tried to create a list of her favorite videos using this sound, it did not show up like her other lists.
One TikTok user commented that posts that she had liked or saved with this sound clip would disappear from her like and saved video histories.
This raises the question of what TikTok doesn’t want users to see in these videos.
Is the censorship of this audio clip a coincidence or a sign of malicious intent?
It is currently unclear if TikTok will continue to hide new videos using this sound.
TikTok has a long history of censoring content, with one notable example being in 2020 when the platform instructed moderators to censor videos featuring people deemed “ugly” or “poor” in an effort to attract more new users.
TikTok creators also often self-censor certain words on the platform in order to avoid triggering a review by the company.
