🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Whether you like it or not, your kid is probably getting much of their news and information about the world not from newspapers, television, Google, or even Facebook: They're getting it from TikTok. No recent example better illustrates the importance—and perils—of TikTok's dominance than the role it is playing in shaping young peoples' view of the Israel-Hamas war.
Since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel and killed more than 1,400 people on October 7, the world has watched on in horror as the full scale of the devastation has emerged and as Israel wages a bloody retaliatory campaign in Gaza. How one has perceived all the aftermath of October 7 wildly depends on where you get your information—and if you're getting it from TikTok, you've probably been presented with an extremely anti-Israel, and in some cases even pro-Hamas, perspective on these events.
TikTok denies that it is putting any finger on the scale or that the platform is heavily tilted on this issue. In a November 2 blog post, the company said, "Over the last few days, there has been unsound analysis of TikTok hashtag data around the conflict, causing some commentators to falsely insinuate TikTok is pushing pro-Palestine content over pro-Israel content to U.S. users. That's simply false. In fact, since Oct. 7 in the U.S., the hashtag #standwithisrael has gained 1.5x more views than #standwithpalestine: 46.3M views compared to 29.4M views. We encourage reporters and analysts who study these matters to look carefully at the data and talk to us before leaping to faulty conclusions."
There are some serious flaws with this corporate spin.
For example, while #standwithIsrael seems to be one of the most popular pro-Israel hashtags, #standwithPalestine isn't one of the most popular hashtags for Palestine supporters. They actually more frequently use #FreePalestine, which has received 917 million views in the US over the last 30 days, according to data from TikTok's Creator Center, exponentially dwarfing the tens of millions of pro-Israel views TikTok touts in its statement.
Regardless, using hashtag data is a very imprecise way to gauge what's getting the most traction on TikTok. So, we're in part left with anecdotal experience—which almost all cuts in one direction.
My TikTok feed has been absolutely flooded with pro-Palestine videos since October 7, as has the feed of almost every TikTok user I've talked to. The rare pro-Israel videos I have been fed are often censored within an hour or two; on multiple occasions I've sent them to a friend only to have them respond that when they tried to view the video it was taken down. (To be fair, some anti-Israel voices have also been censored on TikTok).
Of course, you can still find plenty of pro-Israel content on TikTok if you search for it. But the app is so algorithm-based that what really matters is what's being promoted.
Now, the company insists that it's not algorithmically advantaging one side over the other. And, unfortunately, we have no way of knowing whether they're telling the truth or not. It's possible that the pro-Palestine skew of TikTok's content is simply a natural result of its user and creator base, which is dominated by younger and more liberal people, who lean toward the Palestinian side to begin with. It's also possible that TikTok, whose parent company ultimately answers to the Chinese Communist Party, is putting its thumb on the scale to show viewers more of the side that China aligns itself with and against the side of Israel, a key U.S. ally.
We simply don't know. So, we're left with the reality that anti-Israel voices, and in many cases very extreme ones, are dominating the platform that young Americans increasingly turn to for their news.
The question is then what to do about it.
"Banning" TikTok is not a solution. As the ACLU has argued, the First Amendment protects Americans' right to express themselves online and receive news from the source of their choice. So, if passed, any outright ban on TikTok would face serious legal challenges that would likely tie it up for years and could eventually see it struck down entirely.
What's more, a government ban on TikTok could be incredibly easily circumvented by tech-savvy Gen Zers with a few taps of a screen. All it would take is a basic VPN app that young people already regularly use to access streaming content that is for commercial reasons unavailable in the U.S. but available in other countries.
That's right: The most TikTok-addicted young people—the ones most likely to be influenced by any imbalance in the app's content—would keep using it anyway.
Thankfully, the government is not, in fact, the only source of solutions to societal problems. Parents can and should restrict their children's usage of TikTok. Or, at the very least, parents should make sure that their kids are getting information about important political and social topics from other sources as well. They can also engage their kids in conversation about these issues and push back on any misinformation they're hearing online.
Meanwhile, young adults can and should ensure that they are not overly reliant on any one platform or source for all their news or information. Falling into an internet echo chamber is ultimately a choice, and it's one that no one has to make. All it takes is a little bit of conscious effort to break out of your bubble.
Whatever form the solution ultimately takes, something must be done to address TikTok's skewed perspective of the Israel-Hamas war. Otherwise, young Americans will continue to develop ever yet more extremist perspectives on this complicated conflict than the astoundingly radical views they already hold.
Brad Polumbo (@Brad_Polumbo) is an independent journalist, YouTuber, and co-founder of BASEDPolitics.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
