If you’ve been scrolling on TikTok lately and seeing videos asking, “Who’s going to the NYC music festival this weekend?” or “There’s a big music festival happening tonight in LA, spread the word!” — spoiler alert: Your favorite artist probably won’t be there. In fact, there likely won’t be any music at all (at least, not performed on a stage). Instead, this is TikTok’s latest form of coded language, in which “music festival” is being used as a substitute for a more political type of performance: protests.
This use of code words is part of a larger practice known as algospeak — a form of internet language that swaps out sensitive or potentially flagged words for more algorithm-friendly alternatives to help prevent content from being shadowbanned. You’ve likely seen algospeak before — “unalive” instead of “dead,” or “s3x” instead of “sex.” Now, TikTokers are adding “protest” to this list.
Many social media users believe platforms have been suppressing political content — especially in light of recent ICE raids, detainment camps, and ongoing discussions about threats to democracy. “I’ve been … seeing a lot of videos of people saying that there are protests going on across America, [but] I haven’t seen any [protest videos] in months,” news TikToker @peterispeter said in a recent video. “Who is working overtime to block that footage?”
According to TikTok’s community guidelines, content is moderated to ensure it complies with the app’s policies, and if it doesn’t, it’s restricted or removed. However, TikTok does not have a public-facing comprehensive list of words or types of videos that violate its policies, so it’s unclear whether protest-related content is explicitly banned, or people are just missing it because that’s how the algorithm is algorithm-ing. In any case, users have found masking their language to be an effective way to get the word out about these events to a larger audience.
You’ll notice that these posts are often vague on purpose. You won’t always find much information on exact addresses and times, and that’s intentional. This is done to help protect organizers and spread the word discreetly, without giving away too much information to people who might try to shut these protests down. It’s important to read between the lines when you come across these posts. But make no mistake: These demonstrations are real, and they are taking place all across the country as people speak up about the most pressing issues the country is currently facing. In one video, TikTok creator @piinkdreams_ puts it bluntly: “We need every single video of a ‘music festival’ that comes across your FYP to trend like our democracy depends on it, because it does.” It’s a reminder that behind the “music festival” trend is a serious movement — one that’s growing, mobilizing, and demanding to be seen.