this is really important so i’m posting it here because it’ll probably get removed and the original poster may be banned, but this is literal documentation and proof that terfs and transphobes are directly connected to the far-right and have roots in racism, homophobia, misogyny, and antisemitism. it really is all part of the same oppressive system, so there is no disconnecting transphobia from conservatism. there is no such thing as a progressive transphobe as much as they may want you to believe. it has nothing to do with biology or protecting women or children, none of it is founded in science or logic, it is purely hatred and and attempt to justify bigotry.
[Transcription:
I got radicalized into the far-right on TikTok. Well, technically I didn’t, but an account that I made did, and this is a graph of what that looked like. I just published this study, and I’ll link it in the comments, but I’ll also break it down right now, here.
So I wanted to examine whether or not transphobia is a gateway prejudice that leads to like, broader far-right radicalization. It’s been pretty clear for a while now that the far-right is transphobic, but we wanted to see whether being transphobic alone was enough to lead you to the far right.
So I made a brand new TikTok account and followed 14 creators known to post transphobic content. Then I started scrolling my ‘For You’ page, and I started exclusively engaging with transphobic content, and I documented the main narratives of the more than 400 videos recommended to me. We also double-blind coded this, meaning that another researcher also watched every video and coded the narratives, and then if we ever disagreed, more researchers would come in and perform a tie-breaker. Once we removed sponsored videos and videos that had been taken down before they could be double-coded, we were left with 360 videos.
Of the 360 total videos, 103 were homophobic or anti-trans, 42 were misogynistic, 29 contained racist narratives or white supremacist messaging, and 14 endorsed violence. Obviously, TikTok didn’t just like give us neo-nazi content immediately. I actually didn’t get my first Nazi symbol until video 141. But the more I interacted with transphobic content, the more I was fed not only more transphobic content, but also homophobia and misogyny and racism and antisemitism. So I didn’t actually have to interact with racist content to be fed white supremacist content, I just had to engage with transphobic content.
What you see in this graph is the TikTok algorithm starting off with a normal feed — memes, recipes, whatever — and then going “OHH, you’re transphobic! Have you tried hating the gays? What about women?”
So, it appears that transphobia can radicalize a TikTokker.
Around video 400, you’ll notice an interesting spike in far-right figures, hate symbols, antisemitism and calls to violence. That’s when I reached fascist TikTok and set my phone on fire. 400 videos might sound like a lot, but if a user watches each video for an average of 20 seconds, they would end up watching 400 videos in just over 2 hours. So, a user could basically download the app at breakfast and be fed the overtly white supremacist, neo-nazi content before lunch.
-pauses, purses lips-
That’s not good!
/ end transcription]
Link to the study:
https://www.mediamatters.org/tiktok/tiktoks-algorithm-leads-users-transphobic-videos-far-right-rabbit-holes
