TikTok takes action against disinformation about war between Hamas and Israel

TikTok says it has deployed additional staff and resources to combat misinformation on the platform. Last week, TikTok’s European Commissioner Thierry Breton demanded that the platform take action to combat fake news surrounding the conflict in Israel.

In a statement, TikTok said, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, said it “immediately mobilized significant resources and personnel to help maintain the safety of our community and the integrity of our platform.” TikTok is said to have now removed more than 500,000 videos and stopped 8,000 live streams. Furthermore, the social media platform has updated its automated detection systems and brought in additional moderators who speak Hebrew and Arabic.

Thierry Breton sent earlier this month a call to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew. In it, the European Commissioner says that the European Commission has ‘indications that TikTok is being used to spread illegal content and disinformation’ after the attacks by Hamas against Israel. In addition, Breton believes that TikTok has an obligation to protect children and teenagers from, among other things, ‘violent content, terrorist propaganda and potentially life-threatening content’.

Last week, the European Commission also opened an investigation into X, the former Twitter, and called on Breton Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta to account for its disinformation policy. Meta then deleted almost 800,000 posts within a few days. Major social media platforms are being used to spread disinformation about the war between Hamas and Israel. The EU wants to investigate whether the platforms comply with the rules of the Digital Services Act.