Clocked by the App: Discovering Queer Identity on TikTok

Since 2020, anecdotes of ‘TikTok knew I was queer before I did’ have been prevalent. To examine this phenomenon, this thesis uses semi-structured interviews with five TikTok users in Canada who discovered one facet of their queer identity on the platform. This study seeks to understand these users’ experiences with identity discovery on TikTok and how TikTok’s affordances and limitations contributed to their experiences. This study finds that queer assemblages operate on the platform, users have paradoxical experiences with TikTok, and as a corporate platform, TikTok is limited in what it can offer queer users. These findings uncover fertile areas for future research and offer valuable insights for queer people to imagine a platform that better serves our needs.