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Tuesday, December 26, 2023

TikTok Refuses To Run Ads To Free Gaza Hostages, Claiming They’re ‘Too Political’


  Social media giant TikTok  is refusing to run a paid ad campaign in which family members of hostages held by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza appeal for the release of their loved ones, deeming the content to be “too political.”


While Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram have agreed to host the video clips, which place a spotlight on the 129 people still being held hostage in Gaza, Fox News reported Sunday that TikTok rejected the request to run the campaign on its platform, claiming that it didn’t meet its advertising policies.

Content creation manager for the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Yossi Lubaton said that he had first inquired about running the campaign on TikTok several weeks after the horrific October 7 Hamas onslaught, in which some 1,200 people were killed and more than 240 were seized as hostages, but was rejected after Tiktok claimed that the ads included “campaign slogans” or “depictions of war, weapons, hostages and violence” which are contrary to the platforms policies.

However Tiktok allegedly displayed a double standard on its policies, as it agreed to accept so-called “humanitarian” campaigns that serve Hamas’s narrative while fundraising for Gaza children.

Fox news claimed based on internal memos from Tiktok employees that the social media platform had adopted an unequal policy regarding Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza. Despite rejecting the hostage ad on political grounds, Tiktok allowed content featuring graphic violence and incitement against Israelis to be featured.

Additionally, Jewish employees at Tiktok told Fox Business that their work environment had become increasingly toxic due to antisemitic sentiment expressed by colleagues, as well as the company’s failure to combat Jew-hating rhetoric on the video-sharing platform.

Tiktok hotly denied the allegations, claiming that “We invest heavily in training our moderators to apply these [advertisement] policies consistently.”

Israeli communications minister Shlomo Kari  called Tiktok and demanded that they allow the hostage ad to be published.

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