TikTok's content moderation algorithm permanently deleted transgender Latina creator Rosalynne Montoya's account with 300K+ followers after coordinated false reporting by trolls, despite her content following community guidelines.
On December 14th, 2020, TikTok permanently deleted and banned the account of Rosalynne Montoya, a transgender Latina content creator with over 300,000 followers. The deletion occurred after one of her educational videos about injecting estrogen was reported by trolls. Montoya had been experiencing escalating harassment, with multiple videos falsely reported and removed, though most appeals were approved and content restored. A specific troll account (@ey.yo.wtf) repeatedly screen-recorded her content (including videos with her 17-year-old deaf sister) to spread hate and discrimination, making new accounts when blocked. TikTok's algorithm automatically removes content when enough reports are received, regardless of actual guideline violations, and flags remain on accounts even after successful appeals. After accumulating enough flags from false reports, Montoya's entire account was permanently deleted. Her appeal was denied despite the content following community guidelines. When she went live on a new account, she was immediately banned for 24 hours for 'serious pornography' while wearing a tank top. The incident affected her access to the TikTok Creator Fund and her ability to educate audiences about transgender issues and ASL.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Unequal treatment of individuals or groups by AI, often based on race, gender, or other sensitive characteristics, resulting in unfair outcomes and unfair representation of those groups.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Unintentional
Due to an unexpected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed