{"id":267158,"date":"2022-04-29T16:38:25","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T21:38:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=267158"},"modified":"2022-09-24T11:03:24","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T16:03:24","slug":"tiktok-inexplicably-bans-students-life-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tiktok-inexplicably-bans-students-life-america\/","title":{"rendered":"TikTok inexplicably bans Students for Life of America with no option to appeal"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>On April 25, <a href=\"http:\/\/studentsforlife.org\">Students for Life of America<\/a> (SFLA) was banned from TikTok for alleged &#8220;multiple Community Guidelines violations&#8221; without any opportunity for appeal. While the pro-life group was not given any reason beyond this for its ban, the move came after the group posted the following video, in which SFLA President Kristan Hawkins debated a pro-choice student at the University of Texas San Antonio:<\/p>\n<p><center><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/kafqVjWljWM\" width=\"640\" height=\"355\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/center>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/studentsforlife.org\/2022\/04\/26\/watch-viral-clip-got-students-for-life-kicked-off-tiktok\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SFLA<\/a>, the video, in which Hawkins effectively shut down the pro-choicer&#8217;s arguments as to when life begins, had gone viral across multiple social media platforms and currently has over 2.2 million views on YouTube. Yet TikTok is the only platform that appears to have deemed the video&#8217;s content reason enough to shut down the group&#8217;s account.<\/p>\n<p>SFLA notes that it lost 35,000 followers when the app blocked account managers from appealing the ban.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you\u2019re pro-life on Tik Tok\u2019s social media platform, you have a target on your back,\u201d Hawkins in a statement. \u201cThere is no other explanation for why\u00a0SFLA\u2019s account was recently banned after posting life-affirming content while abortion supporters continue to run rampant on the app. Tik Tok seems to be practicing corporate viewpoint discrimination.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ:\u00a0<em><a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/live-action-banned-tiktok-app\/\">Video sharing app TikTok bans, reinstates Live Action, claims \u2018human error\u2019<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, this is not the first time SFLA has faced censorship on the video-sharing platform. In <a href=\"https:\/\/studentsforlife.org\/2020\/04\/14\/tiktok-censors-students-for-life-then-reinstates-video-without-explanation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">April 2020<\/a>, a video from the group was removed from its account, only to be reinstated without explanation when the pro-lifers questioned the move. Unlike past instances, however, SFLA notes that this time its account was banned without any prior warning.<\/p>\n<p>Pro-life groups have long faced censorship online. Social media giants like <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/censorship-facebook-local-pro-life-ad\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/twitter-locks-pro-life-image-mutilated-human\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Twitter<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/youtube-pinterest-censorship-prolife\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">YouTube<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/pinterest-censorship-timeline-events-live-action-ban\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pinterest<\/a> have all censored or blocked the pro-life message in some way. In addition, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/us-lawmakers-demand-end-google-censorship-ads\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google<\/a>\u00a0recently removed\u00a0ads for abortion pill reversal paid for by Live Action, after the ads already had approval and had been running for a time.<\/p>\n<p>SFLA is not letting the ban stop them from spreading its pro-life message. &#8220;It is clear the left is using big corporations to suppress the voice of the pro-life movement, but we refuse to be silenced,&#8221; the group wrote on their\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/studentsforlife.org\/2022\/04\/26\/watch-viral-clip-got-students-for-life-kicked-off-tiktok\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">blog<\/a>, later noting, &#8220;And if pro-abortion radicals are so convinced that they\u2019re right, why hide from pro-life free speech or block it? What are they afraid of \u2026 the truth?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveactionnewsonline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a>\u00a0for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On April 25, Students for Life of America (SFLA) was banned from TikTok for alleged &#8220;multiple Community Guidelines violations&#8221; without any opportunity for appeal. While the pro-life group was not given any reason beyond this for its ban, the move came after the group posted the following video, in which SFLA President Kristan Hawkins debated [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":607,"featured_media":217708,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2793,3473],"tags":[11147,17116,2508,17117,909,8648,3584,10114],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>TikTok inexplicably bans Students for Life of America with no option to appeal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tiktok-inexplicably-bans-students-life-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TikTok inexplicably bans Students for Life of America with no option to appeal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On April 25, Students for Life of America (SFLA) was banned from TikTok for alleged &#8220;multiple Community Guidelines violations&#8221; without any opportunity for appeal. While the pro-life group was not given any reason beyond this for its ban, the move came after the group posted the following video, in which SFLA President Kristan Hawkins debated [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tiktok-inexplicably-bans-students-life-america\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-04-29T21:38:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-24T16:03:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/GettyImages-1200715713-tiktok.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1193\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bridget Sielicki\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bridget Sielicki\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tiktok-inexplicably-bans-students-life-america\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tiktok-inexplicably-bans-students-life-america\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bridget Sielicki\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/354818e37fca891455094342cfaacf2f\"},\"headline\":\"TikTok inexplicably bans Students for Life of America with no option to appeal\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-29T21:38:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-24T16:03:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tiktok-inexplicably-bans-students-life-america\/\"},\"wordCount\":415,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"appeal\",\"banning\",\"censorship\",\"community guidelines\",\"free speech\",\"pro-life speech\",\"Students for Life of America\",\"TikTok\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Activism\",\"Newsbreak\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tiktok-inexplicably-bans-students-life-america\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tiktok-inexplicably-bans-students-life-america\/\",\"name\":\"TikTok inexplicably bans Students for Life of America with no option to appeal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-29T21:38:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-24T16:03:24+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tiktok-inexplicably-bans-students-life-america\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tiktok-inexplicably-bans-students-life-america\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/tiktok-inexplicably-bans-students-life-america\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"TikTok inexplicably bans Students for Life of America with no option to appeal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; 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