What Is TikTok Doing To Combat Cyberbullying? 

On the face of it, TikTok is an app that encourages creativity, freedom and humour, but there’s a dark side to the platform, which is seeing a rise in TikTok cyberbullying.

TikTok has surged in popularity throughout the pandemic as a place where people can express themselves creatively and experience a sense of community. It’s a platform that actively encourages members to be themselves and share those extraordinary things about us that make us unique.

The downside of any platform that encourages open communication and community is that it can be a hub for cyberbullies. As TikTok has grown, the number of bullies attracted to the platform has grown. 

Cyberbullying has real-life consequences. Studies have shown that bullied online people are much more likely to experience suicidal thoughts and exhibit self-harming behaviours than those who aren’t, which is why it’s so essential that we take cyberbullying seriously.

What is cyberbullying?

Bullying is any behaviour designed to hurt you, either emotionally or physically. It often happens repeatedly over a long period.

Cyberbullying is bullying behaviour that happens online.

Some examples of cyberbullying are:

• Verbal bullying. Any nasty comment made by voice or by text.
• Physical threats. Any threat to your physical safety. 
• Sexual harassment. Any kind of unwanted sexual attention where the recipient is left feeling degraded or intimidated. 
• Damage to your social reputation. Behaviours designed to damage your relationships with other people, such as spreading rumours.

As with any social media platform, people on TikTok might be bullied by comments on their profile or by direct messages.

There have also been examples of people using the stitch and duet features exclusive to TikTik to bully others. Duet allows users to do a side-by-side response to another users video, and stitch enables users to incorporate sections of someone else’s video into their own.

One TikTok user reported hundreds of duet responses to her video showing disturbing footage of people pretending to kill themselves. Once one user had responded in this way, other users joined the trend until it had snowballed, and there were hundreds of videos along the same theme.

What is TikTok doing to address cyberbullying?

TikTok does seem to be taking the issue of cyberbullying seriously.

The platform comes equipped with a variety of privacy controls so that you can choose who can follow, DM, comment and duet and stitch with your videos. For users under 16, these settings are all automatically set to private. You can also remove followers and hide comments which contain specific keywords.

The problem is that you are losing many opportunities for connection by using these privacy controls. When creators duet and stitch with other creators content, this is a great way to start a conversation and get exposed to a whole new audience. If you switch on your privacy settings, you lose all of that.

One of the most effective ways to combat bullying is to speak up when you witness it. Reporting bullying is something that TikTok advocates for in their bullying prevention guide, and they have added a feature where you can anonymously report bullies on behalf of other users. The ability to report bullies anonymously is essential; 4 out of 5 students (81%) say they would be more likely to intervene in instances of cyberbullying if they could do it anonymously.

Reporting bullies is an integral part of tackling the issue. However, it does rely on individual people noticing that bullying is taking place and then doing something about it. 

Do influencers have a responsibility to stop cyberbullying on TikTok?

Influencers can have a huge impact when it comes to cyberbullying. They control who is allowed to see their page, and if they notice bullying behaviour, they have the power to ban those users. By banning bullies from their pages, influencers send the message that their behaviour is not OK, and it means that their page becomes a place where people feel safe to express themselves. Because of the number of people following them, this becomes a meaningful trend.

They also have the advantage of using their social power to empower others. 

A great example of this is when TikTok creator herspective used her account to promote a message from a fellow creator, glamgirl1995. 

A troll on glamgirl1995’s account had made a derogatory comment about how the creator looked. Glamgirl1995 responded with a thoughtful video of her own, expressing concern for whatever the troll was going through that had made them leave a nasty comment. Herspective shared a duet with this video, making it clear that she was on glamgirl1995’s side.

By responding in such a calm and considered way, glamgirl1995 did two things. First, she called out the bully, which showed them up. Second, she showed that their words hadn’t had the desired effect on her. These two things combined will probably make the bully, and others like them, stop and reconsider before posting like that again in the future. Sharing the video herspective reinforced glamgirl1995’s message and showed bullies that the TikTok community stood with glamgirl1995 against that type of behaviour. Most people aren’t going to want to continue posting bullying statements in the face of that. 

Influencers can have a huge impact, but it doesn’t mean that they are responsible for stopping bullying. Influencer pages can have millions of followers, and it’s just not possible for them to police every interaction that happens on their page. 

At each&everyone, we take cyberbullying seriously, as do our influencers. Our influencers will always address cyberbullying as they come across it. However, it takes a collective effort from platforms, influencers and users to address cyberbullying. 

What should you do if you witness cyberbullying?

If you are experiencing cyberbullying yourself on TikTok or have witnessed someone else being bullied, look at the bullying prevention guide TikTok has published. It’s full of comprehensive information about what you can do next.

Some things that you can do to combat cyberbullies are:

• Change the privacy settings on your account to prevent bullies from accessing you.
• Speak up when you see someone being bullied and report them to the TikTok moderators. You can do this anonymously.
• Take a break from social media. Even huge influencers take a break from time to time. Online communities are amazing, but nothing is more important than your mental health.
• Seek support. If you are being bullied online or you feel disturbed by someone else’s online bullying, then speak to a friend or family member about it. 

each&everyone and our influencers are committed to creating a safe community where people can share their ideas. If you notice cyberbullying happening on an each&everyone influencer page, please do let us know, and we will do all we can to resolve the problem.