Tzu Chu's show faces calls to ban TikTok in the US. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images North America
Tensions are rising as TikTok, owned by China's Bytedance, faces a possible ban in the US after Joe Biden signed legislation that would block the app if it is not sold within nine months.
Gerskowitz said his frustration began just days after the brutal Hamas attack. A former adviser to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Herskowitz was the main point of contact between the company and the government in Jerusalem.
But he quickly responded to complaints that TikTok, which has long had a policy of banning political ads, had blocked a number of Israeli government ads, arguing its slogans were too overtly political amid the crisis. Advertisements for the Israeli youth volunteer group Taglit were also blocked, he said.
Shortly thereafter, a social media campaign organized by the families of 250 hostages taken by Hamas faced the same problem.
“It was just videos of the hostages before they were taken, mentioning how many days [they were] being held captive by Hamas – that was also banned on TikTok, saying it was political,” he says of the Take Back campaign. them home now.”
At the same time, an advertisement for Palestinian aid, including graphic images of the war, was approved. Herskowitz, who spoke out about the discrepancy within the company, says, “I just wanted it to be equal.”
Herskowitz adds that he also discovered disturbing messages from some employees on the company's internal messaging app Lark.
The messages included people who appeared to express support for Yemen's Houthi rebels, who have just launched attacks on ships passing through the Red Sea to protest against military action in the Gaza Strip. The source said one of the messages read: “Get yourself a friend who will love you like Yemen loves Palestine.”
Herskowitz claims that the offensive messages were largely written by members of TikTok's trust and safety apparatus – the teams. is responsible for site moderation.
Barack Herskowitz was the main point of contact between TikTok and the government in Jerusalem
In December, Herskowitz included his name in an internal memo shared with the company's top executives outlining the views of some of the company's trust and safety officials. team “very likely” influenced the app's moderation.
Addressing the apparent blocking of hostage ads, he wrote: “Advertising abducted babies, women, children and senior citizens taken from their beds by Hamas-ISIS, ” political question” is at least one-sided.
After the memo circulated throughout the company and was later picked up by Fox News, Herskovits was questioned by senior managers but said his concerns were never properly addressed.
“They tried to please me by saying that they had deleted some messages [from Lark],” he says. “The real problem is that employeeswith such radical views are taking such sensitive positions.”
Following complaints, he said, a number of Jewish employees were also blocked from accessing a pro-Palestinian support group inside Lark.
In January, Herskowitz left TikTok, leaving a cryptic note on Twitter about his departure.
“Following the horrific attacks on October 7th, we immediately mobilized significant resources and personnel to strengthen our moderation teams and platform security, including increasing Hebrew and Arabic language capabilities,” says a TikTok spokesperson.< /p>
“Allegations from a former employee who did not serve on either our security or moderation teams mischaracterizes the significant efforts and resources we have quickly deployed to maintain the safety of our community and the integrity of our platform.”
Months after his departure and nearly six months after the start of a war that has killed 1,400 Israelis and 34,000 Palestinians, TikTok has quietly changed its stance on hostage advertising, allowing some previously blocked campaigns to run on the app.
Dorit Gwiley, head of publicity at Publicis One, which created the Bring Them Home Now campaign, says the group finally ran two TikTok campaigns in which, after months of negotiations, they were allowed to use the word “hostages.”
However, the families have decided not to run any new campaigns on TikTok because its anti-terrorism policies effectively block mentions of the word “Hamas” or any videos that are too “provocative,” she says.
“The word “Hamas” “He wasn't even allowed on the landing page.”
The group's other campaigns were on Google and Meta, she said, but “TikTok is the biggest and most influential platform.”
The Bring Them Home Now campaign has decided not to advertise on TikTok. Photo: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images Europe
More than 130 people captured by Hamas on October 7 are still missing, including the brother of the Israeli TikTok manager.
A TikTok spokesperson said the company was “working intensively” to bring the hostage campaign to its app. TikTok previously blocked all war-related content, but has since amended its rules to allow more humanitarian campaigns, according to the company. The company says there is no policy blocking the word “hostage.”
Concerns about TikTok's handling of the Israeli-Hamas war have been repeatedly raised by US senators amid a recent attempt to ban the app.
A new law that would require China's Bytedance to sell the app by next January was signed by President Biden last month, citing security concerns that the app could be influenced by Beijing.
But Sen. Mitt Romney, a senior Republican and a supporter of the bill also appeared to link the law's quick passage to perceived pro-Palestinian bias among TikTok users.
“Some have questioned why we had such broad support for shutting down—potentially—TikTok,” the senator said on May 3. “The number of mentions of Palestinians compared to other social media platforms is overwhelmingly related to TikTok broadcasts.”
The remarks have sparked a backlash from free speech activists and risk further angering young voters who are at risk of losing access to your favorite application.
Last week, TikTok sued the US government for trying to ban the app, arguing that the new law is “punitive and discriminatory” and an “extraordinary assault on free speech.”
The company has repeatedly rejected claims of bias toward one side or another, arguing that its publications simply reflect what is shared by its audience, which is dominated by young millennials and members of Generation Z.
In April, TikTok said it had removed 3.1 million pieces of content from Israel and Palestine since October, blocked 140,000 live streams in the region and taken action that removed 234% of content. an increase in blocked comments that break the rules.
But anti-hate campaigners say TikTok has made it harder to track anti-Israel posts after it blocked researchers from accessing a digital tool used to analyze hashtags posted on the app.
Imran Ahmed of the Center to Counter Digital Hate says TikTok has “quietly removed a vital data feature used to scrutinize the spread of digital hate.” TikTok said the tool was used to conduct “flawed” research.
Gerskowitz, for his part, believes the company's actions in the war have added momentum to TikTok's crackdown in America, although he's not entirely convinced. ban in the US.
“I'm not entirely sure banning TikTok is the right answer, it's a last resort,” he says, “but transparency of their contentensuring their policies are being implemented equally and fairly, it is very important to treat them as democracies.”
Since leaving, Herskowitz says he has received more than 150 messages of support, mostly on secure messaging apps, from other current and former employees . According to him, they are “doing everything possible to fight from within.”
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