TikTok has removed a Britannia Daily post calling for justice for murder victim Henry Nowak within seconds of it being published — issuing the outlet an account strike for “hate speech and hateful behaviour” — while an almost identical post referencing George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement posted minutes later remained live on the platform without any action being taken.
The double standard has sparked accusations of politically motivated censorship and two-tier content moderation from the social media giant.
Britannia Daily posted an image on its @britannia.daily TikTok account at 22:23 on 2 June showing the handcuffed hands of Henry Nowak — the 18-year-old student stabbed to death by Vickrum Digwa in Southampton, whose dying pleas were ignored by police after his killer made a false racism allegation — alongside the text “Justice for Henry Nowak” and “White Lives Matter.” The post was removed within seconds. TikTok’s automated moderation system issued the outlet an account strike, citing the violation reason as “Hate Speech and Hateful Behaviour,” stating that content “attacks people based on protected attributes like race, religion, gender or sexual orientation.”
Minutes later, Britannia Daily posted an almost identical image referencing George Floyd — the Black American man who died during a police arrest in Minneapolis in 2020 — with the text “Black Lives Matter” and “Justice for George Floyd.” That post was not removed. It remained live on the platform with no community guidelines violation issued, no strike applied and no automated enforcement action of any kind taken.
Screenshots seen by Britannia Daily show both the removal notification for the Nowak post and the continued presence of the Floyd post on the outlet’s profile page, where a blank black square marked “Community Guidelines violation” sits directly alongside the Floyd content that TikTok’s systems left untouched.
The case of Henry Nowak has already ignited a fierce national debate about two-tier policing in Britain, after it emerged that officers had handcuffed the mortally wounded teenager as he lay dying on a Southampton street — having accepted his killer’s false claim that Nowak had racially abused him. Digwa was convicted of murder and jailed for a minimum of 21 years. Hampshire Police issued a public apology for handcuffing Nowak. The Independent Office for Police Conduct is investigating the conduct of the officers at the scene.
The removal of Britannia Daily’s post calling for justice for a white British murder victim — while equivalent content calling for justice for a Black American man was left standing — will be cited by many as a concrete illustration of the content moderation double standards that critics have long alleged exist across major social media platforms. TikTok has been contacted for comment.
