Antisemitic content on TikTok has rapidly increased this year, a new study has revealed, with an alarming 912% increase in antisemitic content.
The study, led by Dr. Gabriel Weimann, a professor of communication at University of Haifa, in conjunction with Natalie Masri, a research assistant at the IDC Herzliya’s Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT), discovered a seismic increase in antisemitic tropes, images and rhetoric when compared to their 2020 study.
In addition, the study also revealed a 41% increase in antisemitic postings and a 1,375% uptick in usernames with antisemitic titles (e.g. @holocaustwasgood or @eviljews). The analysis reached its findings through systematic content analysis of videos, comments and usernames over a four-month period in 2021.
TikTok is one of the most rapidly growing social media platforms online and attracts mostly young people, with 41% of its 1.2 billion users between the ages of 16 and 24. The combination of popularity, exposure, and openness of TikTok is recognized by many extremist, racist, and radical groups including neo-Nazi and antisemites.
“It may be easy to dismiss the platform as an innocuous forum for children who want to be creative, however, TikTok’s catering to young, impressionable and naive audiences, combined with bad-faith actors who are posting hateful content online, is something that should be taken very seriously,” stated Weimann, who is also a senior researcher at ICT.






