Not even orchestrated hate can keep Grammy-winning singer Lizzo from loving the body she was blessed with. A video of the Detroit native lip-syncing in a bikini was removed from a popular social media platform, and now she’s calling the company out for body-shaming. 

The 31-year-old artist posted her lip-sync of Erin McMillen‘s cover of “Tonight You Belong to Me” on TikTok on Tuesday. Shortly after she noticed the video was removed, she created another post to put TikTok on notice that she has been paying attention to which videos they blocked. 

“Tiktok keeps taking down my videos of me in my bathing suits,” she wrote. “But allows other videos with girls in bathing suits. I wonder why?”

At the end of Lizzo’s video, a Twitter user showed a clip of popular TikToker Charli D’Amelio, driving home her point. D’Amelio created a clip of her dancing in a bikini that landed her on the app’s trending list. 

What exactly is the threshold for governance on matters like this?

According to TikTok’s community guidelines, it bans all sexually explicit or gratifying content. It deems sexually explicit content that commits, promotes, or glorifies sexual solicitation or sexual objectification. Users are prohibited from creating posts that show human genitalia, female nipples — male nipples are OK for some reason — or buttocks. 


The community guidelines don't clearly state how Lizzo's video may have been determined offensive compared to D'Amelio's.

In a recent interview with the Rolling Stone, Lizzo revealed in the past she's struggled with body dysmorphia, a mental health disorder in which a person obsesses over a perceived body flaw. She said she’s grown from the experience and is happy to join allies working toward the same thing in their lives.  

“I’ve come to terms with body dysmorphia and evolved,” she said. “The body-positive movement is doing the same thing. We’re growing together, and it’s growing pains, but I’m just glad that I’m attached to something so organic and alive.”

At the NAACP Image Awards last month, Lizzo thanked big Black girls for their support and highlighted them as major inspirations for her work. 

“I just wanna shout out all of the big Black girls that I bring on stage with me. I do that because I want them to know they are the trophies. And since this is the final award of the night I don’t even want to make it about me. Every last one of you, you are the award. We are so special, we are such a beautiful people, this is just a reminder of all the incredible things that we can do. God bless you, and keep on being an award! Let’s go! Let’s go!” she said. 

Hopefully, the haters won’t make Lizzo disappear completely from social media, again. Earlier this year, she quit Twitter due to severe bullying and online trolls.