#Curvy influencers say TikTok banned their body-centric videos

Mikayla Zazon has earned more than 721,000 followers on TikTok making videos promoting self-love. She puts her own twist on choreographed dances, reviews workout gear and discourages “toxic” body talk — all while baring her cellulite, stretch marks and body-fat rolls.

“I showed the process of what it looks like finding food freedom and finding a balance in life,” Zazon, who started the #NormalizeNormalBodies movement on social media, told The Post. “Our worth isn’t our bodies.”

Despite her positive message, the 24-year-old noticed TikTok was flagging her videos — many of which show her in bathing suits or sports bras — and removing them, accusing her of violating the community guidelines.

Those regulations dictate that videos containing dangerous or graphic content, promoting hatred or harm to individuals, that are sexually explicit or a form of harassment will be removed. Zazon claims that, since joining the platform earlier this year, more than 40 of her videos have been removed with that reason cited. One banned video shows Zazon wearing a crop top while eating a cookie with the caption: “You don’t have to deny yourself the foods you love to be healthy … eat the Oreo if you want it.” In another, Zazon stands in a bikini talking straight to the camera about the sizes of clothing she wears.

She insists that her videos didn’t violate any of the platform’s rules — rather, they were censored for not portraying an “ideal” body type.

Zazon’s suspicion of censorship is not far-fetched.

Documents obtained by the Intercept in March show TikTok had a policy to suppress content from users who fell under the categories “abnormal body shape, chubby, have obvious beer belly, obese or too thin.” Those videos would be “less attractive” and therefore “not worthing [sic] to be recommended to new users,” the document read. At the time, a TikTok spokesperson said those categorizations were outdated, and also part of an anti-bullying initiative.

Now, body-positive and plus-size content creators tell The Post they’ve had issues like Zazon’s — TikTok deemed their videos inappropriate, while their thinner counterparts who are dressing, dancing or saying the same things aren’t flagged.

To test that theory, Zazon performed an experiment with her friend and influencer Gabby Male, who has a “smaller body,” according to Zazon. They posted the same video, which features other body-positive influencers, and while Male’s was available for viewing right away, TikTok did not allow Zazon’s to be posted for three hours because it was “under review.”

A spokesperson for TikTok told The Post via email that “body type is never a reason for content moderation on our platform. The fact that some in our community feel it might be is a concern we listen to deeply, and we’re committed to continuing to examine our policies and practices as we work to keep TikTok a safe and welcoming place for everyone.”

Potentially censoring what Zazon calls “normal” bodies is particularly problematic because of the impressionable age of her followers: TikTok has 800 million users worldwide, with approximately 60 percent between 16 and 24 years old. So she’s fighting back against the censorship by re-posting the videos that have been taken down by the platform, an action she said is “speaking out about a culture that is completely consuming teens’ minds [and encouraging them to do] very unhealthy things.”

Denise Mercedes, a 28-year-old fashion influencer with 2 million followers on TikTok, posts videos to show that plus-size women can wear the same clothes as smaller people. However, she says she gave up posting videos that showed more of her skin in swimsuits or crop tops because they got removed.

If a crop top she’s wearing in a video is cropped to show “too much” of her stomach, the post gets taken down, she said. In one video, she recalled, she wore a bathing suit under a coverup and the video was removed. It’s disappointing, she said, because her videos require a lot of effort — especially to make nearly perfect transitions and edits.

Now, she said, she tries to stay as “conservative” as possible to avoid being flagged, and rarely shows more than a sliver of her stomach in videos.

Every time she appealed the removal of her content through the app, she said TikTok didn’t respond.

“It feels bad,” she said. “When it first started happening, I was angry … It’s so frustrating.”

Zazon, however, finally reached a representative from TikTok after multiple appeals.

In a video obtained by The Post of a phone call between Zazon and the representative, the blame for the deleted videos was placed on artificial intelligence, which reviews each video before it’s posted to scan for “inappropriate” content, like hate symbols or naked body parts, the representative said.

“Every single video on this platform goes through a quick review right when it’s posted, so there’s a bit of a delay between the time when you post and when the video can be seen by everyone on TikTok,” the representative said.

The vague explanation didn’t directly answer Zazon’s inquiry as to why her videos were flagged and others’ — who showed the same content — were not. The rep only offered that there is “a margin of error” when it comes to flagging videos.

As for the fact that one of Zazon’s videos was removed while her thinner pal’s was not, the rep said: “That was a bit of a mistake. I’m not sure why.”

Although the representative claimed she would look into the matter, Zazon says she was ignored afterward, despite multiple attempts to contact the company, and has continued to endure the seemingly subjective removal of her videos.

Nikki Garza, who calls herself a “plus-size babe” and a “roll model,” suspects that more skin “surface area” is the reason the AI has deleted some of her content. Her videos typically show her dancing to popular songs, making jokes about “diet culture” or showing off her stomach and body while wearing bikinis to promote self-acceptance.

“Plus-size folks are larger, so there’s more skin showing, but that’s just because we are bigger,” Garza said. “It’s not that we’re showing anything more sexual.”

Shortly after joining TikTok, she said, she was subjected to the same treatment as Zazon.

“My first month on TikTok, I think every other video went under review,” Garza said. “I always appealed them and fought, and I’ve won a majority of them, except two that were permanently deleted.”

One video in particular that was removed depicted Garza’s experience of “shopping in a department store while fat.” In the video, she holds up clothes on hangers — such as a pink sequined minidress — and asks for her size, to which the voiceover replies “No,” as if to say the clothes are not available for her body type. While the video sheds light on the struggles of finding fashionable plus-size clothing, Garza didn’t understand why it was removed.

@itsnikki.g
Can I show my belly in peace? #tiktokcovers #musiclives #cursedimages #bodypositive #bopotiktok #bigbelly #fyp

♬ Ah Eh – queen_zyon1

The company never explained why the videos were deleted, only that they violated its guidelines, a response Garza deemed “fatphobic” because her videos are removed while thinner creators’ videos wearing similar outfits are not.

“Why do I already have to go through so many hoops and appeal things to post the same exact kind of content my thinner counterparts do?” Garza asked.

TikTok creators say the censorship goes beyond hiding plus-size people — the app is removing videos depicting natural imperfections as well.

Danae Mercer — a 33-year-old health journalist who posts her cellulite and stomach rolls to combat the notion of a “perfect” body — said her videos showing cellulite in a swimsuit were removed from TikTok.

“If you look at the #bikini hashtag, there are loads of swimwear videos up — just none with cellulite or stretch marks or rolls,” the Dubai-based influencer said in an email.

Her suspicion?

“They’re weeding out content they deem ‘unattractive.’ ”