Here’s exactly what’s going on with the viral TikTok transgender flag emoji ‘ban’

Over the weekend, lots of people on TikTok have noticed an error when they try and comment the transgender flag emoji under videos. Instead of the pink, blue and white flag, it shows a white flag and then the gender symbol.  There are loads of rumours around why this is happening, but what’s actually going on?

So, what actually happens when you try and comment the trans flag on TikTok?

For lots of people, typing in the transgender pride flag on TikTok shows a weird error that splits the emoji into two – a white flag and a gender symbol. At first, people thought this was a U.S-specific issue, but people in the UK and the rest of Europe have also been having issues commenting this emoji.

Other emojis, such as the regular rainbow pride flag and the two girls kissing emoji, also aren’t working properly anymore, leading to concern that this is censorship straight from TikTok HQ. Several videos have been made about this issue, with many getting millions of views as people try and figure out what’s going on.

Is it really censorship?

Just found out that if you try to comment the trans flag emoji on TikTok you get this instead

Anyway SUPPORT TRANS RIGHTS 🏳️‍⚧️ pic.twitter.com/amxUWqgllm

— Ashley Nichols 🐰 (@AshNicholsArt) November 2, 2025

TikTok is currently in the middle of being bought by the U.S government, and some people think the emoji error is connected to this. But tech experts have labelled it as a simple unicode glitch.

“Love and support trans folks but this is 110% a unicode issue,” someone on X said. “The trans flag emoji doesn’t exist in their version of unicode, so it splits into two emojis.”

Most Read

It’s been changed, so here’s the schedule for the Celebrity Traitors’ final episodes

This maddening Selling Sunset editing error proves how staged the ‘firing’ of Nicole was

The wild transformation Selling Sunset star Bre Tiesi has had since fillers and cosmetic work

Unicode is a universal coding language that uses numbers to represent letters and symbols. This explanation makes sense, as a bunch of other rogue emojis are broken too, like the fixed heart and nodding head emojis.

The glitch seems to only affect some people, and has been there since at least the 2nd November.  There’s currently no way to fix it – we’ll just have to hope TikTok fixes it soon.

The Tab has contacted TikTok for comment.

For more like this, like The Tab on Facebook.

Featured image via Canva