TikTok, Our Old Nazi Oma
30 April 2024, El Paso, Texas, Steven Zimmerman – We all know TikTok has a problem when it comes to espousing hate. We cannot expressly say that TikTok espouses antisemitic, pro-Nazi agenda, and media, but one is left to make assumptions when it comes to how they apply community guidelines.
From TikTok.com
As explained in our Community Guidelines, we do not allow people to use our platform to threaten or incite violence, or to promote violent extremism. We do not tolerate discrimination: content that contains hate speech or hateful behavior has no place on TikTok.
That is admirable. It is admirable but laughable when you consider that the following video is allowed – a video of Shaykh Uthaman attacking individuals while spreading the “Religion of Peace.”
All through TikTok’s “For You” page, you will be treated to some of the harshest, meanest, rudest videos you’ve ever seen. Scroll long enough, and you fall down the rabbit hole of antisemitism and hate, where you can only scratch your head and wonder why these videos are still allowed time within a shared public space.
Yet, the following video was removed for hate speech from our TikTok account without being allowed to appeal.
I recently posted the following video to my personal TikTok account:
The video was removed for hate speech. When I appealed, it was denied. As usual, no reason was given as to why, which would go a long way to help us, the users, better understand what the issues are so that we may craft better videos.
But I can hear you say you embedded the video, so it must be backed up. It is because of an email sent by our editor.
Our email to TikTok contained the following:
Hello,
On the account @thecoppertrinity, a video about how the Allies defeated Hitler was removed. By saying this video promotes hate, is TikTok saying it sides with the thoughts and beliefs of Hitler and Germany under Hitler?
We’re a little concerned that TikTok is now espousing a belief of hate based on Hitler’s thoughts.
Thank you,
Yitzhak ben Moshe
Editor
No response, by the way, as the media representatives and the American head for Trust and Safety seemingly refuse to speak to Jewish media.
We have been in contact with two current TikTok employees who spoke with us on condition of anonymity. After verifying current employment in good standing, we asked how TikTok determines what is and isn’t considered hate speech.
“There is no rationale to the model we employ,” said one of the two engineers. “We have an AI set that looks for keywords or hashtags and then makes an initial, instant detection based on that particular matrix.”
“We also employ a somewhat reasonably trained team for review,” said the second engineer. “We see the flaw there because they bring their varying belief systems, good or bad, to bear when they review an appeal.”
Between artificial intelligence and the human factor, there is a disconnect. While AI can be a valuable tool in detecting hate, there should be a human review before removing the video for violations of community standards. What the second engineer said about the “varying belief systems, good or bad,” gives me pause.
TikTok, like any global consumer brand, is profit-driven. To fatten the bottom line and please their investors, TikTok will find ways to cut the bottom line as much as possible. Part of this is the locations of the review teams.
“I have had videos removed for some reason or another,” said the second engineer. “I can’t say the exact location of where videos are removed, let’s just say they are in countries that may not like Jews all very much.”
Islamic-majority countries are often a cost-effective favorite for corporations seeking to reduce staffing costs. Think of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk https://www.mturk.com/ service that gives you the guise of AI but with a human touch. Could this be what TikTok employees do to some degree?
“While I cannot speak of specifics, like the Amazon service you mention,” said our first engineer, “I can assure you that human involvement is mainly shore and not for the overall benefit of the TikTok community.”
That is an interesting response.
As of 2023, TikTok had 38,578 employees worldwide, approximately 11,400 of whom were based in the United States. However, another resource we accessed shows that TikTok has 8,424 employees within the United States.
We sought clarification from TikTok, but TikTok has refused to respond.
While TikTok pushes to keep its platform alive in the United States by claiming American businesses have enjoyed a boom in sales due to TikTok shops, we must be aware of the consequences of what information and entertainment we consume via TikTok.
While many of us can discern reality from fantasy, some cannot. They will believe that Jews are evil because this is the narrative TikTok has chosen to push. We see videos of pro-Hamas/pro-Islamic LGBTQ+ groups scrambling “Palestinian rights are Queer rights” because TikTok shuts down any voices in opposition.
None of this even touches on the number of PRO HAMAS fundraisers we’ve seen and reporters that seemingly don’t violate a single community standard or even break federal law. The latter is according to the FBI, the agency we reported such fundraisers to.
TikTok has a problem when it comes to espousing hate. They won’t admit it, but we all know it. She is like our old German Oma screaming “Hail Hitler” at her 105th birthday party. We see the problem is there, and we seemingly don’t care.
