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In the video from 2022, Trump says he would change Section 230, a law that shields platforms from liability for user-generated content.

However, consumers and creators of queer content have found ways to thrive online through coded language or other censorship workarounds, according to Wang Shuaishuai, a lecturer at the University of Manchester who studies queer representation in Chinese media.

“Queer content creators can always find new ways of expression,” said Wang, who has interviewed Douyin content moderators in his research.

“For internet and culture regulators, they don’t know how to moderate this type of content either…. Sometimes they experiment with these censorship rules themselves.”

The pair like to search other queer content for coded hashtags to use on their own account, such as “lala,” which is slang for “lesbian,” or the Chinese words for “roommates” or “besties.”