Tiktok has long since become a place for political education for many users. There are also explanatory videos about Judaism on the platform – which not only have to fight against the algorithm.
In short videos on Tiktok, Rica Allam shares her life as a Jew in Germany. On the short video platform, the 31-year-old explains to her around 36,000 followers, for example, what is served on her family’s table on Shabbat, how to bake challah – a braided bread – in rainbow colors, and what traditions are part of the Jewish Sukkot festival. According to the platform, some videos are viewed more than 100,000 times.
Among the clips there is also a recording with more serious content: In it, Allam responds to a comment that someone left under one of her videos. One user wrote that she should visit her family in “Munich Buchenwald,” alluding to the concentration camp. Allam replies briefly: “Unfortunately I can’t do that because Buchenwald is in Weimar.” The National Socialists held more than a quarter of a million people captive in the Buchenwald concentration camp between 1937 and 1945, around 56,000 of whom died in custody from the catastrophic conditions or were killed.
She usually doesn’t report such comments, says Allam in an interview with the German Press Agency. In this case, yes. “I don’t want to go to court at all, that’s not my goal at all. I just want this to be a wake-up call, that you can’t post everything on the Internet and expect that everyone will be okay with it. “
Allam came up with the idea for the Tiktok videos because she often encountered ignorance and prejudice from other people when she said that she was Jewish. She also didn’t know any German-Jewish Tiktokers. “With Tiktok I can give a really good insight into Jewish life,” the Stuttgart native thought.
Leading medium for a young generation
For many users, the former entertainment platform has long been a place for further training. Organizations and individual content creators who produce videos want to reach young people where they already spend a lot of time – and where disinformation can often be found. Simplicity also counts for Allam. You don’t have to write or plan much on Tiktok, she says. “Theoretically, you can just talk to the camera.”
Eva Berendsen, spokeswoman for the Anne Frank Educational Center, also knows how important Tiktok is for political education work and the fight against anti-Semitism. “Tiktok is the leading medium for a young generation,” she explains. The educational institution wants to raise awareness on Tiktok with the educational campaign #TogetheragainstAntisemitism and counteract anti-Semitic hate speech and conspiracy stories. Allam is part of the campaign.
Anti-Semitism on the platform
Even if anti-Semitism on Tiktok is not a new phenomenon, the situation has worsened dramatically in recent weeks, explains Berendsen. “A lot of what we are seeing on our For You pages is blatant hatred of Israel, blatant anti-Semitism, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories regarding Israel and the retaliatory attack on the Gaza Strip,” she says. Individual Jewish Tiktokers who are taking part in the awareness campaign reported sometimes massive hostility.
Tiktok is often about “high speed, sensory overload and striking messages,” explains Berendsen. This particularly plays into the hands of anti-democrats with a simple world view. Educational work, however, poses enormous challenges. Because balanced, differentiated content often takes more time.
Violent content performs better
“The platforms prefer content that generates a high level of interaction – and that is often hateful and violent content,” explains Monika Hübscher. She researches anti-Semitism in social networks at the universities of Duisburg-Essen and Haifa. Anti-Semitic or terrorist content is distributed by the algorithms, “even if it actually violates the platforms’ guidelines.” The researcher is concerned about the current flood of violent images from the Middle East. These were mixed with targeted disinformation campaigns by various actors.
Counteract the hatred
But you shouldn’t be discouraged by the fact that positive content almost always gets less reach than negative content, says Hübscher. It is important not to comment on hateful or even terrorist images and videos and instead to express solidarity with Jews online. “If you combine that with the right hashtags, you can also generate attention.”
Susanne Siegert also counters this with clarification where hatred, agitation and disinformation often circulate. The 31-year-old from Leipzig provides information about the Holocaust on Tiktok, but also focuses on the present – for example by explaining why certain emojis or number codes have anti-Semitic backgrounds. “That’s where I see the most potential for discussion and the greatest reach, because it simply plays a big role in the lives of many young people.”
Since Hamas’ attack on Israel, the tone of its videos has also become more tense. She deletes many comments – “because they are things that I don’t want to get into a discussion about,” explains Siegert. As an example, she cites comparisons that users make between the Holocaust and Israel’s counterattacks in the Gaza Strip.
Appeal to the platform operators
Siegert would like to see more straightforward guidelines from Tiktok and more consistency in their enforcement. Again and again she sees Nazi symbols in profile pictures or Nazi slogans in profile descriptions, where she thinks: “This is really clearly anti-Semitic: Why doesn’t the moderation system work?”
Tiktoker Allam also sees the platform as having a duty to identify videos with obvious false information. Allam would like the users to “take some of the burden off the shoulders of the creators so that they don’t feel completely alone in the fight in the comment column.” Users could also report or display anti-Semitic comments.