Nadia Mishchanka

NAME: Nadia Mishchanka
CENSORSHIP: Account ban

What reason was given for your ban?

Sexual content.

Why do you think your post(s) was censored?

Because TikTok allows people to report and they do not always report subjectively … my content was not provocative. But I am a woman with breasts and legs and they felt that it was enough to be constantly reported to TikTok and in the end my account with over a million followers and with some posts of  58 million views, I had my account under a year taken. I spent time on my content and feel it was unjust.

Were you able to appeal and what was the response?

I appealed.  I assumed it was dealt with by AI and it was just removed. It was always automated answers. I appealed every banned post and they all were reinstated but then for constant breaking guidance (all my appealed posts were back on my account as they were not sexual in a way that you need to remove) my account is still deleted.

What effect has your experience of censorship had on you?

I felt that haters are winning. Those Karens that sit at home and eat McDonald’s and drink Coke. And complain that there are 40-year-old girls like me fit and fun and doing TikTok and they think it’s not for me and keep complaining and banning and now they have a tool in their hands that they can report and they feel powerful. It’s a new reality where  people have power from behind the wall and no one ever finds out that they are reporting you. So they feel strong.

What’s one thing you want people to know about this topic?

I want people to accept that we live in a world of accessible information and creativity and imposing bans on it will not help. The more restraint we impose the more it goes deeper into the subconscious.

You can not remove feet and call it a fetish. It’s just the feet: the same as any part of the body: I was doing yoga poses and my feet were there. I did not even realise that it is considered a fetish.

It’s the same as free the nipple. Why do we differentiate between male and female nipples? Why do we find a woman without the bra sexually provocative and in general a woman with breasts and body sexual? We need to normalise the body.

The more we restrict it the more it becomes a fetish.