60 seconds of hate-speech; the growing acceptance of anti-Semitism on TikTok.
By: Mattie Apple
Tags: Tik Tok, Social Justice, Social Media, Anti Semitism, Israel

TW. includes references to anti-Semitic hate-spech

For most people, the ByteDance social media giant known as TikTok (outside of mainland China) brings to mind a variety of fairly harmless images; dancing teens in Calabasas mansions, thirst-traps and celebrities trying to stay relevant, to name a few. However, it only takes a slight change in one’s FYP (for-you-page … sort of like the explore tab on Instagram) algorithm for it to be made clear that under the surface of this benign content lurks an ugly anti-Semitic undercurrent, coming from both leftists as well as far-right individuals. From personal observance, it seems as if every TikTok discussing Judaic practice or where the creator is visibly Jewish, is accompanied by anti-Semitic comments, no matter how small the amount of traction the video received.

This issue was truly made clear to me today for the millionth time when, scrolling through the app to procrastinate impending uni work, I came across a video of some kids, wearing the uniform of a well-known London Jewish secondary school, lipsyncing to Skengdo & AM’s song ‘Mad About Bars’ with the caption ‘Jewish school mandem ⭕️⭕️⭕️’. Videos like this are ten-a-pence on the UK side of the app at the moment (teenagers messing around to popular songs in classrooms or playgrounds is, after all, not a new occurrence) but there is a distinct difference in comment sections between Jewish and non-Jewish versions. For comparison, I decided to look up the name of my own high-school (a secular/ CoE girls school) on the app and found lots of similar videos. While yes, there were some decently negative remarks amongst a majority kind comment section (as honestly is to be expected to a degree on a public social-media platform), I couldn’t find any examples of hate speech. In contrast, just a singular scroll down the comment section of the Jewish student’s video revealed a barrage of anti-Semitic rhetoric, in particular, references to the gas chambers, concentration camps and strongly anti-Israeli statements, despite the video having nothing to do with the state.

The last part of this list in particular, stands out when looking at anti-Semitism on TikTok. While most rational and sane people can agree that Holocaust-related statements directed towards Jewish people is clearly, anti-Semitic .. anti-Zionist comments and ‘duets’ (video-replys) remain a constant source of discourse and contention among the discussion surrounding the anti-Semitism growing on the app.

People are, of course, allowed to have differing opinions on political issues (radical take I know) and, it is natural that individuals on either side of a debate will have strong emotions on conflicts, especially ones as decisive and impactful as that of Israel/ Palestine . However, it is also clear that the spamming of Palestinian flags, ‘IS-NOT-REAL’ jokes and other anti-Zionist statements in the comment sections of videos which have absolutely no relevance or reference to the Israeli state and just simply happen to include Jewish people or Jewish culture, HAS to be further analysed as not simply a political opinion, but as a form of discrimination.

One of the best pages for this sort of analysis I’ve seen on the app (a high-compliment given that 60-second long videos are not the most easy place to have nuanced debate) is @/ josco224. Josh, an 18 year old Jewish Londoner, manages to produce productive debate on the issue and consistently call-out anti-Semitism as well as educating his followers on Jewish culture, religion and tradition. In particular, Josh repeatedly makes the crucial point that associating all Jewish people with the Israeli state, as the anti-Zionist comments on un-related videos do, is inherently ‘ignorant’. In a video posted in November of this year, Josh lays out the facts clearly in video reply; ; ‘Just like not all Americans are directly responsible for the actions of Trump, not all Jews, Israelis or Zionists are directly responsible for the actions of the Israeli government’. Subsequently, it is very easy to realise that, in many cases, opinions on the Israeli government are used as a scapegoat in order to justify the insulting of Jewish creators specifically for their Jewish identity … and therefore, is anti-Semitic.

As a non-Jewish and non-Palestinian person, I ,of course, acknowledge that I don’t have personal stakes in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, nor can I claim to understand what it must be like to live in a culture of rapidly increasing anti-Semitism, both in the ‘real’ and ‘virtual’ world. However, I would be blind not to recognise that anti-Semitism, in all it’s ugly forms, is sky-rocketing at an alarming rate, in particular, on TikTok. More discussion surrounding this issue (especially criticism of Jewish/ Zionist identity’s automatic linkage with people’s opinions on the Israel) is clearly imperative.