TikTok is a short-form video-hosting service that was released in 2016 by the company ByteDance. The platform can be accessed through its app or website and allows users to submit and react to videos of 3 to 60 seconds in length. TikTok’s primary demographic is young people under age 25, although it is popular with users of all ages and has been the subject of significant criticism and controversy over privacy concerns and its failure to protect underage users. BookTok is a community on the platform that is dedicated to books and literature. Users create and react to videos discussing, reviewing, and recommending books, most frequently from the young adult (YA) or romance genres. In recent years, BookTok has significantly impacted book sales worldwide, influencing many young people to buy and read “viral” books.

Censorship is the act of controlling what information is made available to a population by limiting the public’s access to certain media and communications. This is done with the goal of suppressing ideas or information deemed subversive to the public good or inconvenient to some public or private authority. Typically, this is done through preventing or limiting the publication or distribution of material such as books, films, documents, and more that is labeled offensive or harmful.