By Rachel Savage
LONDON, Sept 18 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – U.S. LGBT+ TikTok users said on Friday they feared losing a popular community platform and valued “safe space”, after the Trump administration announced it would stop Americans from downloading the Chinese-owned video-sharing app.
The order, which takes effect on Sunday, only bans new downloads of the app, but TikTok said another restriction due to kick in on Nov. 12 would amount to an effective ban affecting existing users.
TikTok, which has 100 million U.S. users, is widely used by young LGBT+ people to share niche jokes, find a date, and swap advice and stories about traumatic experiences such as being forced into conversion therapy.
“It’s gutting,” said Rob Anderson a former marketing manager from New York City, with almost a million followers on his account @heartthrobert, where he posts humorous “Gay Science” videos.
“It’s a space where trans and queer and gay people can have fun with their gayness,” said Anderson, who quit his job to pursue comedy thanks to TikTok.
“It’s the first time I’ve ever seen anything like that for gay and queer and trans people.”
