This is not correct. The article states that Tik-Tok went above and beyond Turkish or Chinese laws with their guidelines. This puts the burden on TikTok to justify it's tactics. It seems more likely that they want a platform that does not offend the sensibilities of its target users. This is fine but they can't hide behind local laws and it is fairgame for them to be labelled as a bad actor for helping trample people's rights. Clearly not well-intentioned and deserving of backlash.
But that’s why they called “guidelines” and not “rules”. It’s just a guideline for the local moderator to make a decision on enforcing, it’s not a rule.