This article explores how ‘Latina makeup’ filters—beauty filters—on TikTok contribute to platform racism, focusing on user interactions, platform governance, affordances, and platform-specific cultural practices. Using Critical Technocultural Discourse Analysis, it analyzes the engagement of Latinas (N=499) and non-Latinas (N=1,001) with these filters, revealing how TikTok's vernacular, algorithmic visibility, and platform politics shape user behavior. Non-Latina users engage with these filters primarily for beauty enhancement, depoliticizing the racialization of Latina features. In contrast, Latina users contest, reappropriate, and resignify these filters, leveraging platform vernacular in response to TikTok's limited moderation. The study uncovers a new dimension of platform racism, extending beyond overt hate speech to forms of racial fetishization and commodification, where users transform racialized bodies into aesthetic commodities. It highlights the shortcomings of platform governance in addressing racialized digital practices, while also emphasizing the creative resistance of marginalized communities. Lastly, the paper introduces the concept of 'digital Latinface,' illustrating how non-Latinx individuals, supported by platform politics, vernacular, and culture, commodify Latinx cultural elements to gain social or aesthetic capital.

The paper analyzes the term afrogoth, or afrogotic, on TikTok, from afrocentric perspectives on digital technologies, with the aim of investigating the impact of the hashtag in subverting algorithmic racism and the low visibility that black goth people receive on social networks, as well as digital aquilombamento and the creation of self-definitions. The rationale addresses Goth subculture, Technological Pretuguese, algorithmic racism, hacking the dispositive of raciality and cyberquilombism. The methodology includes the collection of videos with #afrogoth. The results show mostly black bodies using elements constructed as feminine. The creation and use of the term afrogoth is a form of Technological Pretuguese, in which technology itself is used to go against white supremacy, creating a language that refers to blackness. In addition, it emerges as a self-definition, in which Black people can name themselves within Goth Subculture, valuing their blackness and seeking more equality in goth spaces, proposing cyberquilombism by forming a network of visibility and support among Black goth people.

This study explores how Islamic faith is represented and interpreted on TikTok in the context of the 2023-24 Israel-Gaza war, a period that has intensified negative portrayals of Muslims in mainstream media. While past research has examined how Muslims counter stereotypes online, little attention has been given to how faith itself is articulated in times of conflict. Since October 2023, TikTok has emerged as a key platform for religious discourse, with #Islam surpassing 35 billion views, often in a positive light. A growing trend involves non-Muslims expressing admiration for Palestinian faith, sometimes leading to conversion narratives.

Through a multimodal analysis of 50 TikTok videos collected using English and Arabic keywords (Islam, Faith, Gaza / إسلام، غزة، إيمان، صبر), this study examines faith representations across Muslims from Gaza, Muslims outside Gaza, converts, and non-Muslims. Findings reveal a dominant framing of faith as resilience, with users across groups linking Islam to perseverance, hope, and endurance. Muslims outside Gaza often engage with wartime footage to draw spiritual lessons, while converts describe their journey to Islam as inspired by Palestinian faith. Non-Muslims adopt broader universal values of resilience while using Islamic language and hashtags, fostering inter-group dialogue.

By analyzing TikTok’s affordances and algorithmic norms, this study highlights how digital infrastructures facilitate faith-based discourse and shape religious representation. It contributes to discussions on social media, religion, and digital geopolitics, revealing how faith is mediated, negotiated, and mobilized in online spaces during times of war.