Signature launches RE/SIGN campaign to tackle the influx of ‘Fake sign language’ on TikTok (BSL)

The online campaign sees a mostly deaf-team create a series of BSL dance videos and tutorials to challenge the rise of ‘fake sign language’ that is abound on social media.

The campaign was inspired when Recipe creative, Youmna Hazzaa, witnessed a deaf person in A&E trying to communicate through sign language to a doctor and not getting anywhere.

Seeing first-hand the frustration and experiencing the helplessness made her realise how critical it is for people to have some knowledge of BSL. However, when looking on TikTok to learn, she discovered a proliferation of incorrect sign videos, which inspired the idea of RE/SIGN.

It has been said that 75% of Gen Z trust TikTok for their learning, with the social media site becoming the  unofficial ‘go-to’ platform for learning British Sign Language.

With over half a billion views across #deaftok, TikTok is a thriving and inclusive community for young deaf people. However the team at RE/SIGN noticed how authentic content is being crowded out by people teaching Fake Sign – Sign language that is inaccurate and misrepresents the deaf community.

In fact it has been recorded that 89% of people fluent in sign language have witnessed fake sign online.

RE/SIGN is a social first idea created by full-service independent agency Recipe. The campaign attempts to redress the balance of authentic BSL on TikTok, by out-trending Fake sign using the language of young people – dance.

Vanessa Robinson, Creative Director at Recipe said,

“You can’t spot fake sign language unless you are fluent in sign language. When we discovered people were accidentally teaching and learning incorrect sign language, it was a shock.

Creating this campaign has been really rewarding from working on a deaf-friendly film set, with our extremely talented crew, to finding a creative way to fight back, re-educate and re-claim sign language for the deaf community.”

The campaign aims to spread awareness of the problem and get young people interested in learning BSL, whilst encouraging them to learn from authentic voices like deaf creators or qualified teachers at Signature.

For the dance videos, the lyrics to three trending music tracks were translated into BSL by BSL Consultant Cherie Gordon.

These were then turned into dance challenges choreographed by deaf performers Raffie Julien, Chris Fonseca and Sarah Adedeji.

The films were directed by deaf filmmaker, Sam Arnold and along with the dances, three tutorials show viewers a step-by-step breakdown of the BSL incorporated into the dance.

Lindsay Foster, Executive Director at Signature said:

“Signature is proud to partner with Recipe on this purpose-led campaign to educate people about BSL and the impact fake sign is having on young deaf people.

TikTok as a platform has huge potential to reach a younger audience and make them feel part of a community; something which can be difficult to find for deaf young people in particular.

Using dance as a conduit for our campaign objective will hopefully help to spread awareness of fake sign in a way that is relatable and impactful.”

Sam Arnold, Director at Re/Sign added:

“Sign language has become a pop culture trend in music and social media, but it is often overshadowed by incorrect teaching and cultural appropriation.

The collaboration with Signature, Recipe, and The Sweetshop has been instrumental in bringing awareness to our mission: to provide an accurate platform for teaching BSL, educate TikTok users about cultural appropriation and incorrect or fake sign language being taught across social media, and reshape the representation of BSL in social media to respect our deaf culture and beautiful BSL.”

Look out for the RE/SIGN campaign here at Signature’s TikTok Channel and the hashtag #BSLRESIGN