I was asked by a company called "Men in Masks" to promote their 2021 calendar that benefited PATH, which is a nonprofit in California that aims to end homelessness. This calendar featured cute photos of male models wearing masks (that included queer, POC, and disabled people) that were taken by a pretty well known photographer, Maxwell Poth. Although the pictures were of male models, there was no full nudity or anything inappropriate featured in the calendar.

I filmed my first take of the video and showed four images from the calendar. Immediately upon posting this, it got removed. Initially I thought it was due to one of the pictures which barely showed a butt cheek, so I went and filmed a second take. This time, I only showed the cover (which was literally just a shirtless guy) and then a photo of two of the models kissing, also only shirtless. Once again upon posting, it got taken down and this time I got the notification that my account was banned for a week.

I tried reaching out countless times to TikTok support and was completely ignored, besides a single automated reply from their support Twitter page. I was hoping to get the situation cleared up before I lost a week of engagement (and therefore affecting my income), but I was just totally ghosted. It really sucked and I also had better faith in TikTok's flagging system to recognize what is inappropriate and what isn't. I believe my second take was absolutely taken down because of the photo of the shirtless men kissing, which is a very obvious bigoted move against queer bodies.

More importantly, I am frustrated on behalf of Men in Masks, who have been fighting algorithms on all platforms and have been losing sales because their ads are wrongfully taken down. They asked TikTok creators to step in as a last resort and TikTok failed them, and in turn, failed PATH, who was the real victim of this whole scenario.

I'll include the photos below (I recommend not posting them on your TikTok because obviously they flag the system). If anyone wants to know more about the calendar, it can be found at meninmasks.org, or @meninmaskscal on IG.

-Angel