Many people are familiar with the popular social platform of TikTok, where users can upload short videos for others to see. Much like other platforms, TikTok has a recommendation feature that is algorithm based.
How many of you have seen people on the app and felt so ugly in comparison? I know that I have. However, this algorithm is not unbiased or neutral. It has been revealed that TikTok tries to filter out videos from ” ugly, disabled, and poor users“. As we have read before, this is nothing new at all. We read from Safiya Noble’s work GoogleSearch:Hypervisibility as a Means of Rendering Black Women and Girls Invisible this is a new form of digital suppression. These algorithms are programmed to be biased and to only show what has been deemed as attractive so that their app is seen as something aesthetically appealing.
When there is such discrimination online then there is no way to resolve the discrimination in our world. The internet should be accessible to everyone, the whole point is that it allows a sort of social mobility without physical exertion yet apps like TikTok continuously suppress it’s ‘unconventional’ users to promote a toxic standard of beauty. So if you ever feel ugly in comparison to what you are seeing on your feed, it’s because they want you to.
So next time you are on that app and feel insecure know that this is intentional, and know that even if you don’t feel represented that doesn’t mean there aren’t people like you on the app. And if you still feel overwhelmed by the pretty young adults and teens that look like they aren’t even the same species as you, close the app and go touch some grass, and know that there is beauty buried underneath these algorithms.