Harry Potter, censorship marks in the author's name Anonymity as a claim of the work faced with collective property

Abstract

This article examines various censorship marks that TikTok’s users have made on their copies of Harry Potter to erase the name of its author. In contrast to institutional censorship, censorship found in Harry Potter arises from franchise's readers and consumers themselves, as a mechanism of political positioning and social denunciation in response to the author's latest controversies within the trans-feminist movement. Amidst these controversies, the discovered marks aim to disavow the work's authorship, thereby presenting a clear stance of rejection towards the author. Through this, readers appropriate the content and symbolically assert their ownership: it is no longer the author's creation, it now belongs to the readers. The depicted censorial marks acquire significance when examined through the videos and descriptions on TikTok, which reveal the existence of a genuine virtual interpretative community that adopts shared practices. Mere censorship is insufficient; the act of censorship must be exhibited for its purpose to be fulfilled, thus becoming an act in which the performative aspect is crucial.

Keywords

• censura
• marcas de censura
• denuncia
• performance
• tiktok