By: Kate Anderson, Daily Caller News Foundation
A think tank’s TikTok account was suspended on Tuesday after posting videos showing Hong Kong police tear-gassing protesters, according to the think tank.
The Acton Institute, which advocates for religious and individual liberty, released a documentary on April 18 chronicling the persecution of Hong Kong citizens by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and not long afterward, a video promoting the film was removed by TikTok for “violent and graphic content” before being reinstated hours later. On Tuesday, the think tank’s account was suspended from the platform with no explanation, according to Acton’s director of marketing & communications, Eric Kohn.
“We’ve received no explanation from TikTok as to why our account was suspended,” Kohn told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We didn’t receive any warnings about our content. We’ve submitted a request through their feedback form (because we can’t log into our account now that it’s suspended) for more information and for it to be reinstated. We haven’t heard anything back.”
The documentary is called “The Hong Konger: Jimmy Lai’s Extraordinary Struggle For Freedom,” and it follows the life of Jimmy Lai, an “entrepreneur, media mogul, and democratic activist,” who was sentenced to 14 months in prison by the CCP for his involvement in “pro-democracy protests.” In the promotional videos for the film, police can be seen beating and throwing tear gas at protesters calling for an end to the CCP’s control of China and Hong Kong.
The film has 1.3 million views since its release, and Kohn told the DCNF that he believed Acton’s account was suspended because TikTok and the CCP want to hide the truth.
“They suspended our account because our film…tells the truth about what the Chinese Communist Party is doing to persecute advocates for freedom, democracy and human rights – people like Jimmy Lai,” Kohn said. “It’s fitting, in a sense, that today is World Press Freedom Day, because Jimmy Lai is in prison for practicing journalism through his newspaper, Apple Daily, which the CCP forced to close in 2021. The CCP, which controls TikTok, doesn’t want people to know the truth about what’s happening in Hong Kong.”
TikTok did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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