Teens won't stop posting racist videos and challenges on TikTok. Experts explain why the problem continues.

• People are using Tik-Tok "challenges" to spread racist sentiments.
• A series of Twitter threads revealed racist content being posted on TikTok.
• The racist content may surprise some, given the young demographic that uses TikTok, but digital media professionals claim it's inaccurate to view Gen-Z as particularly "woke," noting that discrimination is still an issue across age groups.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

TikTok, the viral video app popular among Gen-Z, has seen explosive and nearly unstoppable growth over the last several years, and it's not slowing down amid the coronavirus pandemic or global recision. Despite a heightened emphasis on moderation and content policies as the app's use skyrockets, racist content continues to find its way on the platform.

While people have stereotyped Gen-Z as more 'woke,' experts say that the younger generation hasn't escaped racism, and in-fact they teens may be more prone to make racist posts.

The issue was highlighted in April when a racist TikTok video went viral.

In the post, two high school seniors could be seen acting as a makeshift human generator, adding derogatory slurs and stereotyped black traits to their "formula."

On Twitter, where the video was reposted, users quickly called out the post, contacting the students' high school and soon-to-be college. The high school quickly announced that the students were no longer enrolled there. One of the students took to her Instagram story to apologize, noting that "blacks are humans too, created in the eyes of God."

While TikTok noted that the post gained virality on Twitter, not its own platform, the incident revealed how racist content could quickly be amplified through the platform's easy sharing features.

Twitter threads inspired by the incident revealed similar content that used the apps video editing software to add a racist tinge to TikTok "challenges."

The Tik Tok challenge, "How's my form", has birthed a plethora of videos that stereotype the black community, the Asian community, and the Muslim community, while others even suggest suicide.

On the most extreme end, users began their 15-second videos in a calm setting that is paired with a provocative, oftentimes racist, statement clearly displayed on the screen. The scene then abruptly shifts with a bass drop into a more tumultuous backdrop as another racist remark replaces the previous statement.

Tik Tok user, @thesilasjames, exemplified his version of the trend to his 184.2k followers by opening his video with "How to cook a dog perfectly" which turned into "Now that all the Chinese people are here… how did y'all do it?" The user proceeded to act as if they were eating the bat graphic displayed.

"These remarks were harsh and cruel and disrespectful and I tried to disguise them as a joke," the user later said in an Instagram apology.

Though the video is no longer on the user's page, other "challenges" on the application continue to amplify racism. Some of them include lip-syncing videos that include the 'N' word; white users posting pictures with black men calling it the "snow bunny challenge;" and users emulating stereotyped black and Latin women calling it the "ghetto-girl" challenge.

TikTok has previously been criticized for hosting racist content.

The recently revealed racist TikTok content found on the app is not a new phenomenon. In 2018, a Vice article claimed the app had a "Nazi problem," as a group of users showed support for Atomwaffen, a violent neo-Nazi group affiliated with the murders of several Jewish people across the United States, while other profiles used a series of Nazi-affiliated hashtags and expressed solidarity with terrorist, Dylann Roof.

TikTok's recently updated community guidelines state that the application removes content, via human and virtual moderation, that "attacks or incites violence against an individual or group of individuals on the basis of protected attributes" and further suspends profiles that violate the rules. The company notes specific examples, including claiming a specific group is criminal; referring negatively to a group as animals, inanimate objects, or other non-human entities; and promoting or justifying exclusion, segregation, or discrimination against them.

Despite the new guidelines, racist content posted on TikTok continues to attract attention, quickly being spread via the app's viral-first design.

"Handling this issue is a challenge for the industry as a whole, but for our part, we will continue to enhance our existing measures and roll out further protections as we work to minimize the opportunity for misuse," Tik Tok told Insider. "We are committed to promoting a safe and positive app environment for our global community and there is absolutely no place for discrimination, including hate speech, on this platform."

Racism defies stereotypes about age.

Almost half of Tik Tok's 800 million monthly users are aged between 16 and 24, qualifying them as Gen-Z. Despite the conception that Gen-Zers are hyper-aware of social injustices, experts warn that racism lives on, even among the younger generation.

"We should be resistant to labels such as 'more woke' on particular generations and stray away from looking at them through monolithic narratives," said Diane Detournay, a professor at Fordham University who specializes in race, class, and gender in the media. "The digital world is an extension of the social world, and I want to say that I'm shocked, but I'm not."

Detournay noted that racist sentiments structure the social world and should also be understood as structuring digital environments. She believes that while white supremacy may at times present itself differently, but it remains as a persistent part of our society that has been present throughout modern history.

TikTok's demographic may actually make the platform more susceptible to racist posts.

Melissa Nance, a Psychiatry researcher at the University of Pittsburgh, explained that pre-teens and teenagers' may actually be more prone to making racist posts given their immature brain development, making TikTok, an app mostly used by Gen-Z, particularly susceptible to such content.

Speaking about education about the problems of racism, Nace explained, "On paper, they may know it to be true, but it doesn't necessarily come into their decision-making process. It's hard to make it feel like a personally relevant factor to them."

"These teenagers aren't necessarily acting differently, but their large platforms expose them to a larger audience and magnetize it."