During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, life for many people shifted online, with much of their activities circulating on and within social media platforms. One such social media platform that received a significant uptick in users was TikTok, which the BBC reported logged 800 million users and was the most downloaded app of 2020. Occurring simultaneously with this shift online was a phenomenon colloquially termed “queerantine,” which refers to a phenomenon occurring over the course of the pandemic in which a straight-identifying person shifted to identifying as queer. Influenced by theories of compulsory heterosexuality and queer performativity, this study aims to identify how socio-technical affordances of TikTok introduce and circulate symbols and inscribe activities that bear upon an individual’s understanding of their sexual orientation. Taking an ethnographic approach, I engaged in participant observation with content groups over TikTok during 2021 as well as conducted in-depth interviews with individuals who identified as experiencing queerantine. Data was analyzed using qualitative thematic analysis. Additionally, with the aforementioned shift online came minimized exposure to physically and traditionally heteronormative spaces; preliminary analysis has shown that for a number of TikTok users, the decrease — or to an extent absence — of compulsory heterosexuality (aka comphet) on certain spaces of TikTok affected their understanding of their sexuality. Moreover, results speak to how LGBTQIA+ counterpublics on TikTok participate in processes of community identification and formation. This research broadens our understanding of the mobilization of counterpublics and the mediation of content through group-specific spaces and contributes to the growing concern of exclusionary practices of social media sites, which are often critiqued for using algorithms that enforce normative assumptions of user behaviors, echo chambers that can spur segregation between communities and spread information, as well as the geopolitics involved in the cross-national implementation of social media platforms like TikTok.