The TikTok Front of the Israel-Hamas War
By Jake Bengelsdorf
TikTok, the popular short video application, has taken center stage in the Israel-Hamas war. The app has been downloaded over 3 billion times and has an audience of 1 billion global monthly active users. It has become a vital source of not only entertainment content, but of political information for users across the globe. With its foreign ownership and many regulatory dodges, it has proved incredibly difficult to oversee. The behemoth company sources trending videos for a user’s “For You Page,” many of which have contained content on Israel and Palestine as of late. As of November 6th, 2023, the hashtag “#palestine” had over 47.2 billion views as of today, and “#Israel” had an equally impressive 40.2 billion.
However, inside these massive numbers lies a complex geographic division. It is extremely country-dependent on whether a user is going to be shown more “pro-Israel” content, or more “anti-Israel” content. Since October 7th, “#standwithIsrael” has been viewed over 40 million times in the U.S., compared to #standwithpalestine with 29 million views stateside. However, in non-Western countries, pro-palestinian videos rake in many more views. Is this part of a foreign ploy to propagate anti-Israel sentiment throughout different countries? Certain officials in Washington believe so.
The reason for the uptick in pro-Palestinian views may be fueled by political desires, but a hidden culprit may simply be TikTok’s highly specified algorithm. The algorithm tailors videos to show exactly what a user desires. Any input from the user (scrolling away, not liking a video, etc.) creates a self fulfilling curation of content. This echo chamber is the basis of the incredibly addicting application, as it shows users exactly what they want to see. This is a major factor in the sway of pro-Israel versus anti-Israel conflict that appears on a user’s account. While in the U.S. #standwithisrael may have had more views in the past month, a country like Indonesia (with almost as many TikTok users as the U.S.) does not face the same situation, as its population is overwhelmingly anti-Israel. TikTok caters to what a user wants and forges a filter bubble from those biases. The “For You Page” is simply a mathematical reflection of the views of the user.
This being said, there are still obscene amounts of misinformation and graphic depictions of violence throughout the application, and governments across the globe need to be doing more. EU lawmakers and members of the U.S. Congress are among many who have called for immediate and swift mitigation of the side effects of TikTok’s prescient algorithm: violent images and information bubbles. We have yet to see evidence that TikTok is knowingly pushing a certain agenda in the Israel-Hamas war, though evidence is mounting that they are letting their omniscient algorithm run unrestricted to benefit certain sides dependent on an individual’s views.
The other source of the issue lies with the content creators. With TikTok’s accessible creator platform, anyone with a camera can become an influencer. There is no fact checking or prior research required. In addition, users across the country want to see exciting and entertaining content — often the most divisive content possible. The middle ground is perceived as dull. Even with sensitivity features on, users are easily able to find graphic images of the Israel-Hamas war. These videos are some of the more popular videos of the past few weeks. With the few regulations and few answers from TikTok regarding cleaning up graphic images and misinformation, Israel may be at the very beginning of a long war on TikTok for its public image and against misinformation. In the meantime, as long as TikTokers continue posting inflammatory content — as opposed to the more ‘dull’ middle ground — it will continually be sent to the very top of users’ For You Pages.
