Yitzhak ben Moshe, Editor/Reporter, New Mexico 

 Petition · Demand TikTok to Stop Discrimination Against Pro-Israel Accounts · Change.org 

“They just put all kinds of nasty things,” said Ms Greenburg. “It made me sit and cry.”

Ms Greenburg is talking about TikTok. More than a few anonymous trolls began to spam her videos with antisemitic rhetoric that included telling her to burn in the gas chambers. 

This has become all too common among Jewish users of TikTok: antisemitism, hate, and threats. TikTok can do the right thing with each new comment and report of hate. “No violations found” has become the most common response users receive.

It doesn’t, however, stop there. 

We reached out to TikTok to ask about what AI features they use in removing content and how they are used in their review process. TikTok, of course, refused to respond.

As mentioned in a previous article, diacritical marks and misspellings of words will bypass the AI software TikTok utilizes. Such was the case for Ms Greenburg.

“I read that article you did, the one on TikTok,” said Allen, not his real name. Allen is an employee of ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok. 

“I wouldn’t say that they are targeting you as a Jew,” said Allen, “but other users can game the system en masse, and it really can’t be fixed on our end.”

It was explained that the system leans from what others report and what others mark with a thumbs down. The thumbs-down is found in the comment section of your videos. Enough people push the thumbs-down on a comment containing the words Israel, Jew, Jewish, and the like, and the system will flag those words.

“It’s the same with videos,” said Allen. “Speeding past a video, reporting a type of content or speech, or even the short survey that may appear after a video. It’s going to all come up in the systems learning.”

The survey asks how you felt about the previous video and if it should be on TikTok. The more people who respond to the survey, the more their internal systems begin to build a profile of what should and shouldn’t be on TikTok. It is a very flawed system.

“Then videos held for review, like you said in that article,” said Allen, “means someone may or may not look at that video. It means that you have had lots of reports and may have won your appeals, but you are now on the radar.”

Diane Rothschild, a staunch advocate in the fight against antisemitism, has begun a campaign on Change.org to hold TikTok accountable. It is unconscionable that Jewish voices are being silenced while hate is amplified. 

“The flip side of this,” says Allen, “is that there are more people on the app that support Palestine and you, and they create account after account, and we really can’t stop it.”

Ms Rothschild plans to stop it with the help of every single member of our tribe. 

“TikTok, a popular social media platform, has been allegedly removing posts and banning accounts that express pro-Israel sentiments and criticize Hamas. This is perceived as an act of anti-Semitism, violating the principles of freedom of speech and expression guaranteed by the First Amendment for American users,” Says Ms Rothschild in her petition.

We urge TikTok to uphold its commitment towards providing a safe space for all voices and perspectives, without any form of discrimination or bias,” she has written. “We call upon them to review their content moderation policies in order to ensure fairness and transparency in their practices.

If you would like to sign the petition, and we at the Jerusalem Press encourage you to do so, the link is below:

Petition · Demand TikTok to Stop Discrimination Against Pro-Israel Accounts · Change.org