TikTok has hired a “proud” American Jewish former IDF soldier – Erica Mindel – as its new hate speech manager.
Mindel’s LinkedIn profile shows she entered the position of Public Policy Manager, Hate Speech in July. The position involves developing and driving the company’s positions on hate speech, according to the job description.
It also involves “spearheading long-term policy strategies” regarding hate speech, monitoring online content, and advocating for the company’s policy stances. It specifically states that the position involves “serving as a subject matter expert on antisemitism and hate speech in internal and external meetings” and “analyzing hate speech trends, focusing on antisemitic content.”
Mindel’s previous role, from 2022 to 2025, was as a contractor for the US State Department during the Biden administration. She worked for Deborah Lipstadt, the special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.
Prior to that, she spent two years at the American Jewish Committee (AJC) as its assistant director of program development. On her LinkedIn, she says she was responsible for “developing and managing high-level advocacy and policy delegations to Israel for political, press/media, religious and civic and academic thought leaders.”
Monitoring hate speech online
Mindel has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Government from the University of Michigan, and a master’s in Public Policy from Johns Hopkins.
During an AJC video in 2023, she explained that she was raised as a traditional and conservative Jew, and took a ten-month gap program in Israel after she graduated from college. She spoke of how, during her first month at university, a BDS motion was brought and she dedicated herself “wholeheartedly” to combating it.
She spoke of how she realized how “passionate her Zionist identity” was during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge.
“I knew the well-being of Jews worldwide and the security of Israel would be issues of lifelong importance to me,” she said.
After graduating from university, she made aliyah and joined the IDF, where she spent two and a half years as a madrichot shirion – an instructor in the Armored Corps.
“For many, this may seem like a contradiction,” she noted, adding that it could seem strange that a woman who identifies as “liberal and progressive” is also a Zionist, “so committed as to join the IDF.”
But she said that for her, “these two identities go hand in hand.”
“I am a proud American Jew,” she concluded.
TikTok has been lambasted in recent years for its management of antisemitic content, and has received reports of antisemitism from its own staff.
Eric Fingerhut, President and CEO of the Jewish Federations of North America, said in March 2024 that “TikTok has helped fuel a horrific spike in antisemitism that our communities are feeling every day, and it’s time to take action.”