INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Image copyrightTikTokImage caption
Ms Aziz said she wanted to raise awareness about China's detainment of "innocent
Muslims"
A US teenager's TikTok video clip accusing China of putting Muslims into "concentration camps" has gone viral on
the Chinese-owned social network.The post appears to be about beauty tips at its start - but the young woman then changes tack to ask her
viewers to raise awareness of what she describes as a "another Holocaust".Feroza Aziz later tweeted that TikTok had blocked her from posting
new content, as a result.TikTok has disputed this."TikTok does not moderate content due to political sensitivities," a spokesman told
TheIndianSubcontinent News
Although, Douyin, the Chinese version of the app, on which Ms Aziz's posts would not have appeared, is politically censored.The company had
permanently banned one of Ms Aziz's old TikTok accounts on, 15 November, for posting an unrelated video that had broken its rules on
terrorism-related material, he said.As an additional measure, it had then blocked her smartphone, on 25 November, but that too had been
unrelated to her posts about China."Her new account and its videos, including the eyelash video in question, were not affected and continue
to receive views," the spokesman added.TheIndianSubcontinent News has contacted Ms Aziz and her family for comment.For its part, the Chinese
government has consistently said the camps in question offer voluntary education and training, despite evidence to the contrary.Ms Aziz
posted three videos about China's treatment of the Uighur Muslims, between Sunday and Monday.The first has been watched more than 1.4
million times and "liked" nearly 500,000 times on the app.A copy uploaded to Twitter by other TikTok users has attracted a further five
million views.And further copies have been posted to YouTube and Instagram.Part of the videos' appeal is they are presented as a deliberate
attempt to circumvent supposed censorship by TikTok's Beijing-based owner, Bytedance.Ms Aziz bookends her critical comments with talk about
to make eyelashes look longer."I say that so TikTok doesn't take down my videos," she explains in one of the recordings.Media playback is
unsupported on your deviceMedia caption"An electric baton to the back of the head" - a former inmate described conditions at a secret camp
to the TheIndianSubcontinentWhile the version of TikTok used in mainland China does censor criticism of the Chinese Communist Party, the
company says it does not take the same action against posts to the separate library of user-generated content it offers elsewhere.And it
notes other clips about the mistreatment of Uighurs within Chinese camps have been allowed to remain on its international platform, although
they do not tend to get anywhere close to the amount of attention Ms Aziz has generated.The 17-year-old's videos were posted the same week
TheIndianSubcontinent Panorama revealed how leaked documents detailed some of the measures used to brainwash hundreds of thousands of
Muslims in the western region of Xinjiang.They undermine China's claims attendance at the camps is voluntary and designed to counter
extremism.China's UK ambassador has dismissed the documents as "fake news".Media playback is unsupported on your deviceMedia
captionChina’s UK ambassador: "This is a pure fabricationMs Aziz provides her own list of abuses
"Spreading awareness does wonders," she says."We can reach millions across the world [and] reach those with the power to do something about
it."The TheIndianSubcontinent has also confirmed that Ms Aziz is in control of a Twitter account created earlier this month
She has tweeted that TikTok has given her a one-month suspension and said that "China is terrified of the news [about the camps]
spreading".Others have picked up on her posts, including a member of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank, who called Ms
Aziz's use of TikTok "creatively subversive".Analysis Image copyrightReutersBy Kerry Allen, China media analystAny apps that operate within
mainland China need to be approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.Social networks recognise they are not allowed to
operate unless they comply with local guidelines - and that means ensuring any content on their platform paints the government in a positive
TikTok, known locally as Douyin, is heavily filtered
For example, in April 2018, it censored all mentions of British cartoon character Peppa Pig, concerned she was being used as a symbol of
But the Chinese government is not concerned about, and has less control over, filtering content on the version offered overseas
And in October this year, TikTok denied it screened anti-China content on its international app, saying all its US user data was stored in
the United States, with a back-up in Singapore
