TikTok under fire for pro-Palestine content, company denies bias
TikTok has managed to do what almost no one can do these days: unite left-wing and right-wing American politicians. Recently, the US Congress, with overwhelming support from Republicans and Democrats, passed a law with two options: either the social media company is sold to a non-Chinese owner within a year, or the app is banned in the US.
TikTok is under heavy fire in the US. The company would keep the door open to Chinese espionage and consciously influence public opinion. According to some, especially conservative American politicians, the app shows users a disproportionate number of pro-Palestinian videos. The politicians believe that this is in the geopolitical interest of China, where TikTok’s parent company is located.
TikTok denies taking sides in the conflict between Hamas and Israel. There are signs that pro-Palestine videos are more popular on the app, but hard evidence of bias is lacking.
Nieuwsuur delved into the opaque world of content moderation on TikTok and Instagram. What do the companies leave in place and what do they take away about the war between Hamas and Israel? You can see that in this video:
For example, the politicians refer to figures that show that pro-Israeli hashtags are significantly less popular on the platform than pro-Palestinian hashtags, and are much less popular than would be expected based on trends on other platforms, such as Instagram. Their suspicion: TikTok itself must play a role in this.
“Maybe more videos with pro-Palestinian hashtags are posted, but that does not mean that those videos are also viewed more,” responds Thierry Marchand, spokesperson for TikTok Netherlands, in conversation with Nieuwsuur.
Marchand denies that Tiktok recommends videos because they have a certain political color. What people see on TikTok is not influenced by the company, but by what users do on the app, Marchand says. Users receive recommendations for new videos based on, among other things, how long they watch a video and whether they share it. “And whether that happens to be to the left or to the right, we have no opinion about that.”
The fact that users are encountering more pro-Palestinian videos can have all kinds of explanations, says Marchand. “Maybe people will post more about that.”
What he also believes is the demographics of TikTok: the platform has many users in countries where there is a lot of support for the Palestinians. “We are an international platform, with more than a billion users worldwide. This is reflected in the diversity of opinions.”
Opinions
In any case, it is certain that the platform has influence, says Natali Helberger, university professor of Law and Digital Technology at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). “Purely because it shows or does not show you certain sides of a story, such a platform has an enormous influence on political opinion formation.”
This is also evident from research by opinion pollster Ipsos I&O on behalf of Nieuwsuur. Because social media, especially young people, are an important source of news about the war between Israel and Hamas. Two-thirds of young people (18-34) follow the war via traditional news accounts on social media, such as the NOS. Nearly half follow the war through other social media accounts, such as influencers. Dutch people who follow the war mainly through social media are significantly more likely to support the Palestinians (around 40 percent) than those who follow the war mainly through traditional media, such as television and newspapers (18 percent).
But, Ipsos I&O researcher Sander Nieuwkerk emphasizes, it is unclear what the connection is between these findings. “Maybe young people are already pro-Palestinian and therefore decide to use social media more often for information, or perhaps spending time on TikTok and Instagram increases support for the Palestinians.”
Whether TikTok prioritises certain videos for political reasons remains unclear. The comparisons between hashtags and platforms are not hard evidence. And it is unclear exactly how TikTok decides which videos to recommend. Helberger: “That may be commercially motivated, but it cannot be ruled out that there are also political motives behind it. There is a major lack of transparency and insight into how the algorithms of social media platforms work.”
Not transparent
In fact, that transparency is only becoming less. In response to the allegations, TikTok recently limited the public tool that allows users to analyze metrics of trends and hashtags on the app. The tool would encourage drawing “incorrect conclusions”, the company claims. Remarkably, the platform itself previously used the same statistics to defend itself against the accusation that it would prioritize pro-Palestinian videos.
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