TikTok is one of the weirdest places on the internet’s surface, yet remains one of its most popular. It’s one of the only sites where amapiano, dancing police officers, cooking videos and gossip are welcomed – but a music video featuring G-Boy smoking weed gets pulled. Here’s more about the weird and loathing that users can find exploring TikTok.

TikTok: Quick content

TikTok is a video-sharing social media website, allowing users to record one-second to 10-minute segments. For direct uploads, users can extend their video’s length to 30 minutes; however, most of TikTok’s content is meant to be quickly absorbed and scrolled through. YouTube Shorts and Meta Reels have a similar format: quick content.

Endless scrolling is a good way to find new things and pass some time. Scrolling can also become an addictive cycle, or find users trapped in what’s now become known as doomscrolling – being absorbed in scrolling through negative content.

South Africa has more than 1 450 000 active TikTok influencers, according to one source. TikTok has removed almost a million videos from South African creators in 2025 for violating site guidelines. Their guidelines prohibit gambling, shocking or graphic content, nudity, dangerous activities, as well as depictions of alcohol, tobacco or drugs. Disaster footage and “extreme physical fighting” are examples of some of the things banned according to community guidelines (though you may occasionally see them anyway).

One thing sets TikTok apart from the restrictions people increasingly feel when visiting other social media sites. Their guidelines expand to say: “To ensure space for expression, we do allow more latitude for social critique of public figures.” Users have enough space to voice their opinion, as long as it’s not set to music while smoking a joint. YouTube is more relaxed about this, which is why you’re more likely to find Lil2Hood remixing Like a pimp on YouTube rather than TikTok.

Oh, there’s also the fact that TikTok is banned in the United States for data and user privacy concerns – but somehow remains accessible for South African users. (And then there is the added fact that Donald Trump has reversed the ban, but may reapply it. Tik, tok.)

President Cyril Ramaphosa has done much to increase cooperation with China, citing a $51 billion deal signed with President Xi in 2024. TikTok access must have been an offer the South African government couldn’t refuse. It is the same president, I’ll remind you, who bestowed The President’s Order of Ikhamanga to Emile YX? while ignoring other hip-hop artists’ hard work – and other creatives’ pleas for fair industry regulation for freelancers. Let it be clear: I’m not criticising the individual artist; I am criticising politics and TikTok. Let’s hope that intelligent, outer-space beings don’t see political news or TikTok timelines first. It would bring about the certain decision to annihilate everyone immediately just out of sheer confusion.

TikTok and South Africa: It’s complicated

TikTok has a complicated relationship with South Africa. While it’s not banned for South African users yet, TikTok has already become a double-edged platform. Spending a couple minutes on TikTok means you’ll either enjoy its content, or hate it forever.

TikTok and Instagram have become important platforms for law enforcement, especially where crimes are recorded or criminals post boastful, ballsy admissions after their crimes. However, the same platform also drew criticism from the country’s previous minister of police, Bheki Cele, for its content featuring dancing police officers (often dressed up in their uniforms). Sharing content featuring uniformed police officers jiving or looking attractive seems like good fun – until you realise that their job doesn’t necessarily need the public exposure when it was dangerous enough without it. It becomes easier to see why some countries have restricted TikTok access, and harder to think why South Africa hasn’t.

Why does the mainstream population kick against movements like Voëlvry or zef, but embrace gossip on TikTok with open arms? Let’s take the documentary trailer for Tiek Tok Boem! into account.

Yes, it’s an Afrikaans documentary about gossip and dissing on South African TikTok. If you haven’t watched the trailer, it’s worth mentioning that one user achieved their few seconds of TikTok fame with the (translated) phrase: “I’ll tit-slap her!” Community guidelines aren’t always great at checking languages that lack moderation. The documentary proves why increased moderation might be necessary, and may prove that many social media users are fine with their own freedom of speech – just not anyone else’s.

Everything in moderation

TikTok, like most social media channels, is continually moderated for inappropriate content. However, the mixture of artificial intelligence and human moderation lets a lot of content slip through the cracks. A “family-friendly” social media site can always become weirder when you’ve scratched under the surface. For example, a wave of heavily inappropriate content was introduced to YouTube in the 2010s as child-friendly cartoons. Guardians, parents and teachers were easily tricked into setting kids down in front of “appropriate” content that soon wasn’t.

Social media can also be a breeding ground for fake news, like the example of a thirteenth grade entering South Africa’s school system. Mostly spread on TikTok, the story of the thirteenth grade was soon proved to be false, but it’s important to notice the point that fake news was allowed to spread in the first place.

Even with the platform being moderated or watched, weird or inappropriate content always slips through the cracks. It’s not unique to TikTok, but can be seen on YouTube or other sites with a couple of keywords and setting switches.

Sometimes algorithms deliberately push content that could upset or provoke the user. Doomscrolling doesn’t just mean you’re having a strange day: it could mean that you’re being shown increasingly disturbing content to make sure that you will have that awful day.

Control the flow of your social media channels, including TikTok, by reporting any content or tags you don’t want to see. Settings allow users to add “exemptions” for things they’d like to avoid (eg, religion or washing powder advertising); this can be done for timelines and advertising keywords.

Natural algorithm recommendations aren’t always what users want them to be. Some research has shown that TikTok is skewed towards accidental far-right recommendations. And if you’re wondering, TikTok is one of the platforms with the highest support for Europe’s far right, according to more than one reliable source – I checked.

Social media sites like TikTok can show you anything that’s bypassed its filters or hasn’t been reported yet. Users can have more control by adjusting their settings, and thereby telling social media what they don’t want to be shown. A common example is BookTok, where content is specifically geared to readers, writers and book reviewing. It’s a friendlier place to find yourself, compared with thousands of other TikTok communities or tags with threatening auras.

TikTok appears to be about dancing challenges and fun on the surface. However, scratch off the pretty paint and there’s a deeper rabbit hole that users might not want to explore as much as they initially thought. I’ll stick to BookTok and SoundCloud.