The TikTok app is displayed on an iPhone screen on 24 April 2024 in Miami, Florida (AFP)

TikTok, the Chinese social media giant, is supporting a Muslim Women's Network UK event, a move branded 'insulting'

A British parliament event scheduled for next month celebrating the "cultural contribution of Muslims in the UK" is being supported by TikTok, the social media giant accused of censoring content on human rights abuses faced by Uyghur Muslims, Middle East Eye can reveal.

An invitation to the event on Tuesday 11 March in the House of Lords, seen by MEE, comes from Baroness Shaista Gohir, a crossbench peer who leads the Muslim Women's Network UK (MWNUK).

"Baroness Gohir is delighted to invite you to the Parliamentary launch of Muslim Heritage Month, supported by TikTok," the invitation reads. Muslim Heritage Month is an initiative of MWNUK.

Parliament banned TikTok from its network over security concerns in March 2023 amid allegations, which TikTok denies, that it gives users' data to the Chinese government. 

Uyghur rights activist Rizwanagul NurMuhammad strongly criticised the planned event in parliament.

"As a Uyghur who has lost my brother to China’s arbitrary detention, I cannot stay silent while a Muslim initiative in the UK accepts the support of TikTok, a platform that actively censors our suffering, erases our voices, and now seeks legitimacy in Muslim spaces," she told Middle East Eye.

"My brother was taken, like millions of Uyghur Muslims. I live in exile with no answers, no closure, only enforced silence by the same Chinese state that controls TikTok."

Uyghur censorship

TikTok told MEE it was "categorically inaccurate" to suggest that TikTok censors content related to Uyghurs in China or that TikTok is controlled by the Chinese state, adding that there is lots of Uyghur content on TikTok.

In 2020, a TikTok executive admitted at a UK parliamentary hearing that the video-sharing platform had previously censored content about Uyghur Muslims being detained by the Chinese government, although she insisted it was no longer doing so.

But reports since have found that the platform's parent company ByteDance - which has faced claims, that it denies, of being influenced by Beijing - detects and often suppresses content critical of the Chinese government.

"TikTok reportedly removed or filtered content about the Uyghur genocide," a spokesperson for the World Uyghur Congress, a US-funded organisation based in Germany, told MEE.

"In the context of China's increasing transnational repression against Uyghurs in the diaspora, we hope that TikTok doesn't contribute to the further repression of Uyghurs."

Many Uyghurs living abroad have accused TikTok of deleting videos about human rights abuses in China's Xinjiang, the northwestern region where the government has detained up to a million Uyghurs, a Muslim minority group, in so-called "re-education" camps.

Authorities in Xinjiang have banned Uyghurs from using TikTok and other social media apps.

'As tone deaf as it is insulting'

The invitation to the event in the House of Lords reads: "The event will bring together interfaith organisations, content creators and parliamentarians to celebrate the cultural contribution of Muslims in the UK."

A Westminster insider who was invited to the launch told MEE they were shocked to learn of TikTok's involvement.

"This is as tone deaf as it is insulting," they said. "Uyghur Muslims face unimaginable conditions and have only ever asked for our solidarity. To ignore that call so brazenly, in the holy month of Ramadan no less, is insulting. I will not be attending."

'The UK Muslim community has always stood for justice, from Palestine to Kashmir, so why should Uyghurs be an exception?'

 - Rizwanagul NurMuhammad, Uyghur rights activist

Uyghur activist NurMuhammad told MEE that while the initiative "may have good intentions", its collaboration with TikTok indicates a failure by some British Muslims to stand in solidarity with the Uyghurs.

"The UK Muslim community has always stood for justice, from Palestine to Kashmir, so why should Uyghurs be an exception?

"True solidarity means refusing to allow those who silence us to claim a place in our spaces."

NurMuhammad wrote to MWNUK last week urging the organisation to "drop TikTok as a sponsor", acknowledge "Uyghur oppression" and "ensure future events are not supported by entities complicit in human rights violations".

The email, seen by MEE, said that TikTok's involvement "in an event meant to uplift Muslim voices is not just contradictory, it is also deeply offensive to us Uyghurs who are being targeted by China’s Islamophobia, which seeks to systematically strip us of our Islamic religious identity."

China has portrayed harsh security measures in Xinjiang as being part of Beijing's battle against "terrorism".

But there have been many reports of torture, systematic rape, forced labour, mass disappearances, executions and the destruction of thousands of mosques and cultural sites in Xinjiang.

In April 2021, the British parliament voted to declare that China is committing genocide, although the Conservative government did not do so.

MWNUK said the "repression of Uyghurs and the systematic erasure of their Islamic identity is a grave human rights issue that deserves global attention and solidarity."

The group defended TikTok's sponsorship of the event, saying: "Muslim Heritage Month is designed to celebrate the rich and diverse contributions of Muslims in the UK and to create a space for engagement, empowerment, and visibility.

"Many Muslims, including those from marginalised communities, use TikTok as a platform to share their stories, raise awareness about discrimination, and foster connections. Indeed, we have seen how effective social media can be to challenge human rights abuses and provide an authentic insight into the lives of individuals, communities and cultures.

"Engagement with TikTok allows for greater conversations on freedom of expression, particularly regarding marginalised Muslim communities around the world, which also includes tackling online antiMuslim hate both in the UK and globally. This approach enables us to be part of the dialogue, providing constructive input and sharing diverse views, rather than unheard spectators."