TikTok bans Fahmi Reza over lecture on student activism

Summary

• Fahmi Reza is banned from TikTok after livestreaming a lecture about the history of UM student activism.

• TikTok bans political advertising, but not political content.

• In the second half of 2023, the government filed the highest number of takedown requests with the platform.

Graphic artist-cum-activist Fahmi Reza has been banned from TikTok.

This is believed to be over a lecture he gave yesterday about student activism.

In an Instagram post, Fahmi said that TikTok had terminated his livestream of the lecture last night, before banning his account.

According to the artist, the "Student Power" lecture held at a coffee shop on the Universiti Malaya campus was about past UM student activism in demanding student rights.

TikTok has a policy banning political advertising, but not political content explicitly.

TikTok previously revealed in a report that between June and December 2023, the Malaysian government made the highest number of takedown requests to the platform.

Malaysiakini has contacted TikTok's Malaysian operations for comment.

Previously, in the lead-up to the 15th general election, Fahmi had used TikTok to educate the youth about politics, democracy, and the electoral process.

At the time, he regularly received content warnings from TikTok, which were attributed to some users filing complaints.

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