TikTok vs. Reform

Reform UK, a political party in the UK, has announced its intention to file a complaint against TikTok. This comes after the social media platform abruptly ended a livestream of the party’s campaign rally.

Richard Tice, the President of Reform, expressed his outrage at what he perceived as an “unjustified attack” on his party. He suggested that the platform was pandering to “extreme political correctness” when it suspended the livestream during a speech by candidate Ann Widdecombe.

Tice speculated that the suspension was a reaction to Widdecombe’s assertion that “there are only two genders”. He has since lodged a complaint with TikTok.

Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform, later made light of the incident in his own speech.

TikTok acknowledged the suspension but attributed it to a moderation error. They assured that access was restored within half an hour.

Ann Widdecombe, a former Tory minister, expressed confusion over the suspension, stating: “I was merely articulating party policy, nothing that hasn’t been said by Nigel or Richard before.”

Political commentator Isabel Oakeshott alleged that the platform had labelled the content as “hate speech”.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Tice said: “This is an unjustified attack on a major political party simply because we stated that there are only two genders.”

He added, “It seems TikTok is pandering to extreme political correctness. Despite this, over 300,000 people watched the livestream across various platforms quite remarkable for a political party rally.”

The interruption occurred during Reform’s rally in Birmingham, which was attended by 5,000 supporters. The speakers included Paul Oakden, the party’s CEO, Ann Widdecombe, Zia Yusuf, a major financial backer of Reform, Richard Tice, and Nigel Farage.

In his speech, Farage claimed that a video of a Reform canvasser using a racial slur against Rishi Sunak was being used to tarnish the party’s reputation.