Social media titans caught in Gaza storm over content
Hamas on Israel, social media platforms are still caught in the maelstrom, struggling to control content and withstand user fury.
TikTok and X, formerly Twitter, were swept up in controversies this week, one involving an unearthing of a two-decade old screed by Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States.
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta is also facing pushback from users accusing the company founded by Mark Zuckerberg of over-censorship of pro-Palestinian content.
The problems have cast a harsh light on content moderation policies at the big platforms after a big cost-cutting campaign last year saw trust and safety teams gutted.
For TikTok, the risks are real as it faces a threat to be outright banned in the United States, under suspicion that its powerful algorithm is ultimately under the control of the Chinese Communist Party.
Those calls were renewed when it emerged on Thursday that videos promoting bin Laden's «Letter to America» went viral, 22 years after he wrote it.
Bin Laden's deeply anti-American writing explained his reasons for masterminding plane attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people.
Searches for the letter were eventually banned by TikTok which minimized the reach of the videos.
«TikTok is so popular now with younger users, and when you talk about younger users you are talking about uniquely uninformed people,» said Paul Barrett, deputy director of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
«They do not have enough knowledge of the world to know you can't rely on Osama Bin Laden as your history teacher,» he added.
— 'Flip a switch' -
Meanwhile, according to The New York Times, more than a dozen Jewish TikTok celebrities
