Fact-checking TikTok’s claims on Antisemitism

CCDH’s Policy & Partnerships team has discovered that TikTok has recently made a series of public and private claims to organizations and individuals who campaign against antisemitism.

Our Research team has conducted a rapid check to establish whether these claims were true, misleading, or demonstrably false.

❗Claim: Pro-Israel hashtags such as “#standwithIsrael” have accrued more views than pro-Palestinian hashtags such as “#standwithpalestine”.

🔍What CCDH found:

This is a cynical claim, and is made using cherry-picked and distortive data. #FreePalestine currently has 796 million monthly views, over 16 times more. #freepalestine globally has 2 billion views in that time, compared to 351 million for #standwithisrael. TikTok should make their data available more widely, including providing transparency data on how many children have seen content.

❗Claim: TikTok diligently enforces its rule on banning Holocaust denial.

🔍What CCDH found:

By searching terms including “jewish lies holocaust”, “holocaust survivor liar” and “6 million”, CCDH rapidly surfaced several videos containing holocaust denial, including:

• A video claiming that the holocaust is “another Jewish lie”
• A meme about “when you found out the Jews lied about the holocaust”
• A video containing supposed lies about the holocaust with the words “sociopaths will blanket themselves in traumatic cultural events that cannot be questioned” and the caption “#holocaust #myth”
• A video celebrating “holocaust revisionists” who are questioning established facts about the holocaust “in spite of Jewish opposition to historic integrity”
• A video arguing that the number 6 million was established before the holocaust began

❗Claim: TikTok does not permit harmful misinformation about Jewish communities.

🔍What CCDH found:

By searching terms including “jewish controll”,  “shekels” and “jewish media”, CCDH easily surfaced content containing harmful misinformation about Jewish communities.

• A video of Kanye West making antisemitic claims about Jewish control, which is superimposed with the words: “Kanye was right all this time”
• A video stating: “Why do six Jewish corporations own 96% of the media?”
• A video of Kanye West making antisemitic claims about Jewish control, superimposed with the words: “Kanye West explains why celebrities can’t stand with Palestine”
• A video claiming that in the bible “the Jews were frothing at the mouth telling the Romans to kill Jesus”
• A video of a “jewish baby” rejoicing when he gets given some money

❗Claim: TikTok does not permit hurtful ideologies about Jewish communities.

🔍What CCDH found:

By searching terms including “austrian painter” (a phrase used to refer to Hitler), “jewish jk” and “jews money”, CCDH surfaced hurtful content about Jews including antisemitic nazi ideology

• A video clearly referring to Hitler (an “Austrian painter” whose “name starts with an H”) with the quote: “you guys will know why I did what I did in a few decades” alongside the hashtag #FreePalestine
• A video playing a speech by Hitler with the caption “the perfect man”
• A meme with words “Palestine reviving the Austrian painter (aka Mr H) for extra support, captioned “where is he when you need him the most”
• A video making light of the holocaust with the caption “#jewish #shower #gas #humour”

❗Claim: TikTok does not permit conspiracy myths about notable Jewish individuals and families.

🔍What CCDH found:

By searching terms including “soros jew”, “rothschild control” and “soros”, CCDH surfaced the following videos containing conspiracies about notable Jewish individuals and families.

• A video that depicts the Rothschilds as “freemasons illuminati controller of the world”
• A video that claims that the Rothschild family “owns 80% of the world’s wealth” and “controls the world”
• A video that paints Jacob Rothschild as the “zionist elite” with “full control” over the “KL-03 microchip”
• A video stating that George Soros has a goal of “destroying the west”, with the words “suffer in hell” written next to an image depicting Soros as an octopus with control over BLM, Ukraine, EU, Election Fraud and the WEF

TikTok remains incapable of enforcing its rules, despite its claims to the contrary. Furthermore, our analysis shows why platforms ‘marking their own homework’ is an unacceptable alternative to proper regulation of social media platforms. CCDH’s STAR Framework lays out a comprehensive platform for social media regulation that balances human and civil rights against TikTok’s commercial rights, and enjoys majority public support.