Last week, TikTok permanently banned the sports apparel company XX-XY Athletics from advertising on its site after it defended women's sports in one of its promotions.
“It’s not nice to further a lie, it’s not mean to believe in women’s equality, we deserve our own sports, privacy, fairness, safety—we deserve a chance to compete and win,” the ad states in part.
And here's the notification lest I be accused of lying by my "fans." pic.twitter.com/lUJ6cjuDYQ
— Jennifer Sey (@JenniferSey) June 18, 2024
"I think it’s really compassionate towards women and girls. And being compassionate towards women and girls is not being anti-trans and somehow that’s how it’s being positioned in the world today," CEO of XX-XY, Jennifer Sey, told NBC 24.
So far, however, the decision to ban the company from advertising has backfired.
"If the intention was to silence us that has not worked at all. I think the ad just in the last couple of days has gone completely viral and has well over 3 million views at this point,” Sey noted. “Certainly not something we could have afforded with an ad buy. We’re anything but silenced and we won’t give up because we think the message is too important."
Did you hear about this video that was just banned on TikTok? 👀
— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) June 23, 2024
I didn’t believe it until I saw it. pic.twitter.com/WoigzozeDT
Apparently TikTok banned this ad for XX-XY Athletics. Opposing the inclusion of biological males in womens’ sports is so “offensive” to Tiktok that it can get your content censored & put your account in jeopardy.
— David Thunder (@davidjthunder) June 19, 2024
No joke.
pic.twitter.com/jwXSskknCS
TikTok removed this ad from their platform for violating community guidelines. Shocker.
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) June 19, 2024
Should would be a shame if everyone shared this clip and bought from @xx_xyathletics 🙂pic.twitter.com/UVq3XaDsFN