(Jewish Group) Antisemitism on TikTok spiked 912% says a new study. But is it accurate?
It’s no secret that antisemitism runs rampant on TikTok, the viral video sharing app. And yet when a recently released study from the University of Haifa showed a 912% increase in antisemitism on the app since 2020, the size of the spike seemed shocking.
I’ve reported on TikTok for months, both on its inventive Jewish creators and the app’s struggles to contain antisemitism — such as when, for Jewish Heritage Month, the platform highlighted Jewish creators on its “Discover” page and exposed them to a barrage of antisemitic comments.
Antisemitism and hate speech is very difficult to regulate on social media, and most platforms struggle with identifying and blocking it. Yet a 912% increase is beyond the pale; what does it mean for antisemitism on the app to rise by such an exponential amount?
A better understanding of that alarming spike requires some context about how TikTok evolved during the pandemic, what antisemitism looks like on the app and how exactly the study is measuring the increase. While the findings sound alarming, they don’t necessarily show that TikTok is more of a magnet for antisemitism than it once was.
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For all the tsuris around Facebook, where is all the "concern" around other social media platforms, like this one and especially Twitter?