Far-right internet personality Steven Crowder is now using TikTok to spread hate to a younger audience.
Crowder may be new to TikTok, but not to bigotry. Crowder regularly goes on hateful tirades on his YouTube show Louder with Crowder, where he recently said that “all major historical gay figures” had AIDS and that being gay could make mental health issues, promiscuity, and AIDS “more likely.” He has also targeted transgender people, called alleged Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse a “hero," and used racist and homophobic slurs.
YouTube has suspended Crowder twice for spreading misinformation and harassment, but he continues to flagrantly abuse the platform to disseminate racism, bigotry, and even antisemitic conspiracy theories. Now, Crowder is bringing that same hateful content to TikTok, targeting the platform’s young audience.
Crowder’s TikTok follower count and video views have been steadily growing since he began consistently using the platform in April. Despite being relatively new to the site, Crowder has already used TikTok to post transphobic rants, attack transgender actor Elliot Page, and claim that Derek Chauvin didn’t get a fair trial. All of this content seems to violate TikTok’s hateful behavior or misinformation policies.
Not only is Crowder’s content undeniably hateful, but he is also actively directing users to Rumble, the far-right YouTube alternative, as well as his own website, where he uploads full-length shows containing all of the misinformation and hatred referenced above (and more). Beyond the substance of Crowder’s content, his direction of users to these sites is particularly concerning given TikTok’s young user base, where as much as one-third of users may be 14 years old or younger.
Allowing Crowder’s presence to grow will further expose TikTok’s vulnerable audience to his homophobic, racist, and hateful rants, as well as directing them to other sites where they can easily find a plethora of other extreme content and harmful conspiracy theories.