TikTok to update its policy regarding antisemitic content
The app's developers have announced that while content which promotes hate has always been off-limits.
By OMRI RONThe TikTok logo is seen on a screen over Times Square in New York City, U.S., March 6, 2020(photo credit: REUTERS/ANDREW KELLY)
Social media platform TikTok has announced it will be revising its policy in regard to hateful content, including Holocaust denial and antisemitism.The app’s developers have announced that while content which promotes hate has always been off-limits, there were never clear guidelines put in place, short of well-known ideologies such as neo-Nazis, Holocaust denial and white supremacy.Consulting experts and academics, the company has decided it will not allow the posting of content which promotes Holocaust denial and other violent tragedies, as well as adopting the European code of dealing with hateful content on the internet.This will also include hateful content targeting communities, such as promoting conversion therapy or the idea that people are not born LBGT. TikTok will also try and help support a positive body image across the platform.The social media platform has also promised it will continue to train teams to enforce these new rules, and which will be aware of the evolving nature of hateful speech to be able to properly identify the context of such language, which – if found to be hateful – will be dealt with.The company has said it will practice transparency when removing content, as to allow users to be able to appeal the decision.The World Jewish Congress applauded TikTok’s announcement and the company’s intention to change its policy to combat hateful content.“I am pleased that TikTok is taking more concrete action about the spread of antisemitism and other hateful ideologies on its platform,” President of the World Jewish Congress Ronald Lauder said.“Our younger generations are getting their knowledge and information from users on these platforms, and spend so much time on them, which further puts the onus on social media companies to protect their users from hate directed against them, and to ensure they are not being used to spread blatant misinformation,“As TikTok mentioned in their announcement, eliminating hate from TikTok ‘is a tall mountain to climb.’ I’m not sure we will ever reach the peak, but we must not rest on our way there. We look forward to learning more about these changes and to working with TikTok to ensure their proper implementation on the platform,” Lauder continued.TikTok had previously conversed with the Israeli government, where they agreed to explore ways to combat hate speech and antisemitism.
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