*Update: TikTok has since apologized and unblocked the teen's access to the platform.
One Muslim girl's TikTok went viral over the weekend for all the right reasons before her account got suspended from the platform.
Feroza Aziz's video, which has amassed millions of views, started off as a regular makeup tutorial and smoothly shifted into an awareness video on China's state-sponsored oppression against Muslims.
The 17-year-old later shared screenshots of her suspended TikTok account on Monday, with many saying the app's Chinese developer, ByteDance, was censoring content that went against the Chinese Community Party. TikTok, however, refuted those claims in a statement to BuzzFeed News, saying Aziz was suspended from the platform for a video containing a meme about Osama bin Laden. After speaking with Aziz, BuzzFeed has said that the spokesperson's description of that video was not entirely accurate. In another statement to BBC News, a TikTok spokesperson reiterated that the platform "does not moderate content due to political sensitivities."
Aziz is far from convinced with TikTok's reasoning.
"I still find it suspicious that TikTok took down my video right when my posts on China's concentration camps were made. Doesn't sound right to me," she said.
"So, the first thing you need to do is grab your lash curler, curl your lashes, obviously," Aziz says at the start of the now-viral video.
"Then, you're gonna put them down and use the phone you're using right now to search what's happening in China, how they're getting concentration camps, throwing innocent Muslims in there. ... This is another Holocaust, yet no one is talking about it," she continued.
The 17-year-old was briefly discussing the abuse China's Uyghur Muslim community has been enduring in recent years. Leaked documents, released earlier this week, exposed China's systematic brainwashing of Muslims in prison camps across the country, something the government has previously denied. The documents revealed how the government monitors, abuses, and locks up Muslims in camps under strict rules.
"This won't silence me"
Aziz, who has previously been suspended from using TikTok, posted the viral video on her now-suspended new account. She cannot access this account from her phone, though her account is still visible to the public.
"China is scared of the truth spreading"
"TikTok pretends it doesn't censor," writes Executive Director at HRW
Between Sunday and Monday, Aziz posted three videos about China's mistreatment of the Uyghur Muslims. Screen recordings of those videos have been shared on other social media platforms including Twitter and Instagram.
People are lauding the teen's communication strategy and use of the platform to spread awareness on a serious issue.
"Bad-ass makeup tutorial"
"The make-up tutorial you never knew you needed"
There have been multiple reports in recent months confirming China's abuse of Muslims in the prison camps. People who escaped the so-called "re-education camps" in China have reported torture, rape, and abuse. Last month, a Muslim woman who escaped - after being detained in November 2017 - said inmates were "gang raped, subjected to torture and medical experiments and forced to eat pork."
The Chinese government has repeatedly refuted the claims, saying the camps are in fact voluntary "vocational education and training centers" in the Xinjiang province. But official documents, leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) earlier this week, exposed the truth on paper. Titled "China Cables," the documents revealed how inmates are locked up, brainwashed, and punished.
About one million people - mostly Uyghur Muslims - are believed to have been detained in China without trial. The recently leaked documents are considered to be the first time classified government papers have been made public, offering "the first official glimpse into the structure, daily life and ideological framework" of these prison camps, according to The Guardian.