TikTok is significantly ramping up its efforts to combat misinformation related to the Israel Hamas war. The social media platform is taking steps to prevent the spread of hate messages.
Two weeks into the Israel Hamas conflict, TikTok announced that it’s redoubling its efforts to counter the dissemination of fake news and the incitement of hatred and violence in the context of the armed conflict. This decision comes after a warning from the European Union and other social media platforms such as X/Twitter regarding the ongoing conflict, which has caused thousands of casualties on both sides.
In a press release, ByteDance, the company that owns TikTok, stated that they have established a global coordination center and have enhanced their software to detect and remove violent content from the platform. Additionally, they plan to hire personnel proficient in Arabic and Hebrew to oversee the content shared by users on the social network. This initiative is in addition to the removal of over 5,000 videos and the suspension of more than 8,000 live streams in the Middle East region since the start of the Hamas attack on October 7th.
These actions are being taken as the European Union initiates investigations into misinformation on social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram, which are owned by Meta, just like TikTok. Meta and TikTok have until October 25th to respond to the EU’s demands and until November 8th to provide more specific information about the measures taken on this issue.
