Some 96% of videos that violated TikTok’s community guidelines were removed before a user reported them, 90% were removed before users watched them, and hate content is monitored by technology and 10,000 content experts, a representative of the social media giant told the Knesset.
Elizabeth Kanter, a TikTok representative, on Wednesday pledged before the Knesset’s Committee on Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora that the social media company will fight against the anti-Semitic content distributed on its platform.
This is the Committee’s fourth discussion on anti-Semitism on social media platforms in the last three months, and the committee’s chairman David Bitan emphasized that “the phenomenon of anti-Semitism on social networks has increased greatly in recent times since the outbreak of the Corona crisis.”
Bitan congratulated Facebook on its decision to delete content that includes Holocaust denial.
“This is an important step in the fight against online anti-Semitism, and I expect and hope that other companies in the field will join and adopt this policy on anti-Semitism,” he said.
Member of Knesset (MK) Michal Cotler-Wunsh called on TikTok to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of anti-Semitism to fight hate speech on its platform.
Kanter said that “anti-Semitism is a heinous thing, and anti-Semitic content that expresses hatred has no place on our platform. We have zero-tolerance for organized hate groups and those associated with them. Our community rules reflect our values – and when they are violated we act, including removing the content and closing accounts.”
Kanter suggested that the TikTok app be used to increase Holocaust remembrance and Holocaust studies.
However, she conceded that “in a world that is becoming more polarized day by day, it is probably a very difficult challenge, but we will never stop working to make TikTok a safe platform for our community so that they can feel free to express their creativity.”
