TikTok CEO Shou Chew has become personally involved in efforts to address concerns that the app has fueled anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, in a sign of how seriously the company is taking is taking the criticism. .
In recent weeks, Chew, who lives in Singapore, has met in New York and via video calls with numerous prominent Jewish groups and leaders.
The meetings, organized by TikTok, have been with organizations such as the American Jewish Committee, the UJA Federation of New York and the Anti-Defamation League, the groups told The New York Times. He also joined a call with dozens of Jewish business and tech leaders, including the founders of Tinder and the clothing brand Bonobos, as well as Facebook's former chief revenue officer.
In the meetings, Chew emphasized that he was there to listen and tried to explain how the company moderated misinformation and hate speech, according to three people who attended the meetings and spoke only on condition of anonymity.
TikTok, like many other social networks, has been criticized since October 7, when Hamas attacked Israel, for spreading misinformation, graphic images and hate speech. But TikTok has faced increased scrutiny because it is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese company, and because it is an increasingly influential news source for younger Americans.
Last month, lawmakers renewed their calls to ban or regulate TikTok, arguing that Beijing may be influencing the content it promotes.
“TikTok isn't the only problem within social media, but TikTok is probably the most influential news source for 18- to 29-year-olds,” said Eric Goldstein, executive director of the UJA Federation of New York. “When we were offered the opportunity to sit down with TikTok leaders, we jumped at it because we wanted to convey the depth of concern right now.”
TikTok did not confirm its participation in the meetings or comment on the discussions. The company rejected claims that it disproportionately promotes pro-Palestinian content to young Americans and said it was working to combat anti-Semitism on the app.
“This is an extremely difficult time for millions of people around the world and in our TikTok community,” said TikTok spokesperson Jamie Favazza. “We believe it is important to meet and listen to creators, human rights experts, civil society and other stakeholders to help guide our continued work to keep our global community safe.”
TikTok said that since the conflict broke out, it had hired more Arabic- and Hebrew-speaking moderators and had been working with Jewish and Muslim groups to better identify cases of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia on the platform. It said it had removed millions of videos for violating its content rules from Oct. 7 to Nov. 17, including 5.6 million “shocking and graphic” videos and several million linked to harassment, bullying, hate speech and hateful behavior. .
The company, in its statement, noted a new message for users, “Rapidly changing events,” that now appears at the top of results for search terms like “Gaza.” It warns that related videos may be inaccurate and directs users to search for “authoritative sources” of news, with links to Reuters coverage.
Searching for a hashtag like #FromTheRiverToTheSea (a pro-Palestinian slogan that many Americans see as a call to eradicate Israel and that the Anti-Defamation League considers anti-Semitic) also generates a new message urging users to “consider the power of words.” , he said the company. That message says “certain phrases can mean different things to different people” right now. The moderation of #FromTheRiverToTheSea was raised by a group of Jewish creators and celebrities who met with TikTok executives last month. (Mr. Chew did not join that call.)
On one of the calls, Chew joined more than 20 Jewish business leaders, including Sean Rad, founder of Tinder; Andy Dunn, founder of Bonobos; and David Fischer, former chief revenue officer at Facebook. The group had sent TikTok a private letter detailing its concerns about the platform's content, led by Anthony Goldbloom, a statistician and former CEO of Kaggle, a data science company that is now part of Google.
Goldbloom, who confirmed that the meeting had taken place, has been posting on youths. American people. TikTok has said that hashtag analytics are flawed and misleading.
Several participants said they were satisfied with Mr. Chew's personal commitment. But others said they remained frustrated with the platform and had taken their concerns to lawmakers pushing to ban TikTok, including Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis.
Gallagher and Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., recently said that planned to introduce legislationThat would require social media companies to publish detailed reports on how they handled content that violated their policies. It would also require a report from the director of national intelligence on the use of social media by terrorist groups. The men have asked the Justice Department to require TikTok to register as a “foreign agent,” accusing Beijing of influencing what teens and twenty-somethings consume daily.
A group of Republican legislators sent a letter on November 20 to Mr. Chew with a similar tone. They asked him to answer about a dozen questions by Dec. 4, including how TikTok was categorizing misinformation about the war between Israel and Hamas and what “algorithmic capabilities” the platform was using to promote or suppress content linked to the conflict.
TikTok has long said that it does not allow any government to influence or change its recommendations to users.
UJA's Goldstein said the group had urged TikTok to dedicate more resources to combating misinformation and blocking content with anti-Semitic hashtags. He said time will tell what changes are coming, especially as other social media platforms face similar issues.
“Our proposal was to use this as a leadership moment in a way that moves the field and engages others,” Goldstein said. “Shou clearly understands the problems.”
Emma Goldberg contributed reports.
