 I think here, this is the most important piece of evidence that we have against Hamas here. As you can see, this is a dress that civilians wear. What is this, you may ask? Hamas tunnels. This is a map of Hamas tunnels. You can see here, they all wear it and Hamas finds where the tunnels is. Yeah, I feel like this is just some normal dress design. Are you, are you, I think it's simple size, huh? Do you want, is it going to have to die? Is this what you're saying? Oh. Cut! Bro, give me another reporter, what the f***? You just watched a parody of Israeli Defense Force propaganda by Syrian TikToker Tayyima and she is one of the thousands of young people to post TikToks criticizing Israel that have gone viral. Now, the pro-Palestinian sentiment that we're seeing from young people on TikTok has led to this manufactured hysteria over the platform and whether or not it is genuinely brainwashing young people into supporting Palestine and being anti-Israel. So we'll talk about that discourse in this video and I'll answer that question as to whether or not it's happening. Spoiler alert, it's not. But before we get to that, let's watch one more clip from Tayyima. We have the Hamas operation calendar where they switch shifts. It says there's Muhammad, Muhammad right there and Ahmed, this is Hamas's map of how they want to eradicate us, the ethnic people in our holy land. It says against humanity, against humanity. We are in the front lines. We are saving you. Let's get out of the tunnel. Oh, they were here? No, bro, I told you, how long have you been there? Are you new? You're probably new, but you brought it in. Oh my God, look at you using this. She is amazing. Now, listen, it's a big platform, right? But still, I don't think it's a stretch to say that the overwhelming majority of young people on TikTok don't support Israel. Specifically, they're against Israel's indiscriminate bombing of innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza. And rightfully so, I'm glad that they're taking this stance. In fact, Axios reports that pro-Palestine TikToks get far more views than pro-Israel posts based on the hashtag stand with Palestine and stand with Israel. Now, the timing is everything because you can see that there was still more sympathy towards Israel following the 10-7 attack, but as time went on and evidence of war crimes emerged and went viral, more and more people began to express sympathy with Palestinians and speak out on their behalf. Now, I think it's important to point out this correlation because there's a coordinated effort to smear all critics of Israel as anti-Semitic and conflate support for Palestinian civilians with support for Hamas. But that's wrong. It's slander. It's a straw man. And that's not what we're seeing on TikTok contrary to popular belief. In fact, Axios reports TikTok does not allow terrorist content on its platform. Hamas, a TikTok spokesperson confirmed to Axios is considered a terrorist group by the platform and is banned. So here's what's actually happening. The media can no longer hide what's happening from us like they used to be able to do before. We're seeing firsthand accounts of violence against Palestinians and in response, there's been a shift in public opinion. We're seeing videos of what is happening in Gaza. And as a result, Israel has ramped up the propaganda in an effort to mislead the public but they've gotten sloppy in their desperation and that's also hurt them. They've promoted pollywood conspiracy theories where they accuse Gazans of faking their injuries and deaths. They've claimed that a calendar was a terrorist roster. They claim to have found a perfectly clean copy of Mein Kampf in a child's living room. And as Alexander Smith of NBC News puts it, all of these information missteps have led to questions about Israel's credibility. Now, to be clear, by information missteps, he means lies. So if you're an empathetic person who cares about human life and your objective, you're very clearly going to be critical of Israel here. But according to Israel's defenders, TikTok is to blame for all of the pro-Palestinian sentiment. Now, in the same way that TikTok is apparently turning kids trans as Charlie Kirk has alleged, they're now turning the kids into Hamas supporters even though Hamas isn't allowed on the platform and pro-Hamas sentiment will be banned. But don't take my word for it. This is what the ADL CEO had to say about TikTok in leaked audio. Now, to be fair, it's not just him saying this. Several Republican lawmakers have also renewed calls for TikTok to be banned with them pointing to anti-Israel sentiment as another reason to ban the app. And also a number of Jewish celebrities have reportedly confronted TikTok executives in a private call according to The New York Times. They report, the celebrities and creators described sometimes with fiery rhetoric how TikTok's tools did not prevent a flood of comments like Hitler was right, or I hope you end up like Anne Frank under videos posted by them and other Jewish users. Quote, what is happening at TikTok is it is creating the biggest anti-Semitic movement since the Nazis, says Sasha Baron Cohen, who does not appear to have an official TikTok account, said early in the call. He criticized violent imagery and disinformation on the platform telling Mr. Presser, shame on you and claiming that TikTok could flip a switch to fix anti-Semitism on its platform. Mr. Presser and Mr. Melnick of TikTok were also Jewish and based in the United States were largely conciliatory in the meeting. Obviously, a lot of what Sasha says, there's truth to that, Mr. Presser said, referring to Mr. Cohen's remarks that social media companies needed to take more action. Mr. Presser later said, there was no magic button to address all the concerns raised. Deborah Messing, who has more than 37,000 followers on TikTok, pressed executives on TikTok's moderation of the pro-Palestinian slogan from the river to the sea, which many Americans regard as a call to eradicate Israel. Now, there were other celebrities that were grilling TikTok executives. Amy Schumer was also reportedly on the call, but to be clear, anti-Semitism is a growing problem around the world and it absolutely has proliferated on the internet, specifically on social media platforms like Twitter. So I don't wanna minimize the reality of that. And I have no doubt that these terrible things are being said and they're also being said on TikTok and that's unacceptable and I unequivocally condemn it. Having said that though, TikTok does far more to police hate speech than any other platform, at least based on my experience, right? But that's not to say that it has successfully eradicated all hate speech because it's there and it will continue to be there and they can always do better. But this is not a problem that is unique to TikTok and I get the sense that this sudden hysteria over TikTok is a manufactured controversy by disingenuous bad faith actors with ulterior motives to push a different agenda. And I say this because one day after Greenblatt condemned Elon Musk for endorsing a viciously anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, he hailed Elon Musk for his quote, leadership in fighting hate after he announced that he's banning the phrase from the river to the sea on Twitter. Furthermore, Amy Schumer who was also on this call is a racist Zionist who attacked people calling for a ceasefire while sharing a comic that called Gazan's rapists, not just Hamas, all Gazan's rapists. And Sasha Baron Cohen defended her saying, it is of interest that moment you fight against Jew hate that people come out to destroy you, but more on him in a moment. As for Deborah Messing, she recently spoke at the pro-war rally in D.C. alongside Pastor John Hagee who once claimed that Hitler was sent by God and blamed Jewish people for the Holocaust. So here's what stood out to me about this article. Some of these celebrities lambasting TikTok executives over anti-Semitism have given a pass to racists and anti-Semites themselves, which makes me doubt their sincerity. And I get the sense that this really isn't about anti-Semitism on TikTok. It's about Israel, right? It's about supporting the governments of Israel. And they just don't like that young people are critical of Israel because they're being exposed to facts about the situation unlike older generations. That's what I think this is really about. Now that's not to say that all of them are disingenuously using anti-Semitism as an excuse to try to shut down the conversation around Israel-Palestine. But I think that a lot of these people are doing that. The Republicans are certainly doing that. And I think that a lot of these celebrities on this call are doing that as well. Now, not all of them though. In fact, of this group of celebrities, I think that Sasha Baron Cohen probably is more genuine since he has the longest history of calling out social media platforms who profit off of hate. In fact, in 2021, Sasha Baron Cohen actually called out Twitter while it was still owned by Jack Dorsey asking him why they allow the Hitler was right hashtag to exist. But here's the thing, he doesn't even have a TikTok. So I don't think that he's in a position to adequately address the climate on TikTok. Furthermore, given his history of calling out bigotry on social media, I do find it absolutely fucking astounding that he's not making Twitter his number one priority because Nazis don't just exist on the platform. They thrive, they get boosted by the algorithm if they pay Elon Musk $8 a month. Now, you can still care about TikTok, right? But what I'm saying here, not to be a what aboutism type of person, is that if you care about hatred on social media, I don't know why you would prioritize TikTok over a platform like Twitter. It just doesn't make sense or not even equally prioritize them. You just ignore Twitter, at least from what I've seen. It's just, it feels weird to me. But like all social media platforms, TikTok has problems too. I'm not denying that. And my goal isn't to run interference for TikTok, but to suggest that bigotry on TikTok is somehow worse than other social media platforms, or that the Chinese Communist Party is deliberately using TikTok's algorithm to promote pro-Palestine content to undermine the US's geopolitical interests in the Middle East is just so fucking unhinged to me, right? And TikTok responded to these allegations and this headline from Vice pretty much sums up the situation. TikTok says it's not the algorithm, teens are just pro-Palestine. And the article explains, the company wrote in a press release that its algorithm does not take sides but operates in a positive feedback loop. The more of a certain type of content a user interacts with, the more of that type of content they will be shown. On TikTok, the videos people view, like and share, inform the recommendation algorithm about content they might find relevant. Using these signals, the recommendation algorithm creates a prediction score to rank videos to potentially recommend. The effective thrust of TikTok's blog post then is that young people are seeing more pro-Palestine content on the app because that's what they're engaging with. In other words, it's not the algorithm. Teens are just pro-Palestine, as the Vice headline pointed out. And I feel like this is pretty evident if you use TikTok. I mean, if you watch a cat video and you watch it from beginning to end or maybe you watch it twice, you're going to see more cat videos. The algorithm isn't trying to brainwash you into supporting cats as our new overlords, although I would support that. It's just showing you what you want because it wants to keep you engaged because that's how social media platforms make their money. Now, in their press release, they also outlined ways that they're trying to adapt and actively address the hateful content that they're seeing on TikTok. They're not denying that it exists, as Elon Musk would do. If you read the press release, they were completely reasonable in saying that they're trying to do better but it's a work in progress. And they admit that there is fault here, but they also point out public polling data indicates that there was a decline in support for Israel among younger generations that predated TikTok's popularity and that holds true today as well. And they even point to pro-Palestine sentiment being stronger on Instagram and Facebook. So it is a bit weird that they're being singled out and I'm glad that they brought the receipts. But I mean, they're right. Of course, TikTok is not the cause of pro-Palestine sentiment. It's just another conduit within which young people can express themselves. But of course, TikTok is going to defend themselves. Of course, they're gonna really suppress statements saying that they're innocent. They're not necessarily impartial here. So I mean, if you're not necessarily convinced, a better question is what do political scientists say? Well, as NBC News reports, quote, it would be really easy to blame social media platforms, said Joshua Kurtzer, a professor of international studies and government at Harvard University. You can't draw inferences about the causal effects of exposure on TikTok when people are choosing what to be exposed to in the first place. He added noting that TikTok's algorithm tends to show people what they're interested in, shocker. Thomas Zeitzauf, an associate professor of public affairs at American University, said, the shift may reflect the influence of the Black Lives Matter movement on some young people's thinking. Some activists have drawn parallels between the treatment of people of color in the United States and the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank in Gaza. The domestic politics of Israel may also play a role, Zeitzauf said. Netanyahu has openly feuded with Democrats, including then-President Barack Obama, and he heads a right-wing government that has expanded West Bank settlements over the Biden administration's objections. His push this year to overhaul Israel's judiciary sparked mass protests, not only by Israelis, but also by thousands of American Jews. A Pew survey in August found that Americans ages 18 to 29 had low confidence in Netanyahu. Now, to be clear, there are other theories as to why younger people support Palestine more than older generations, but none of those alternate explanations include TikTok, because no serious person actually believes that young people are being brainwashed by TikTok's algorithm into supporting Palestine and being anti-Israel. But I mean, there are a plethora of reasons as to why young people are more inclined to support Israel, and I think that being educated and knowing the facts is why disproportionately. There is a power imbalance here. This is apartheid. One side is oppressed, and the other side is doing the oppressing, and they can see that. Thankfully, younger people are more sensitive to issues related to racism and settler colonialism, and they're against it. They want it to stop. This is why young people are also called woke. But that's a good thing, because if you're not awake, you're asleep. But young people are smart. They know the facts, and the same propaganda that used to brainwash older generations is no longer as potent as it is today. And that's a good thing. I think it's good that countries can no longer manipulate the masses with Orwellian lies. Young people aren't anti-Israel because they're anti-Semitic, contrary to popular belief. They're anti-Israel because of the actions of Israel's government that they are aware of because of social media. If they didn't know what was going on, then they would probably just support Israel by default because that's what our median government tells us to do. But because they can see what's happening, they're aware of what Israel is doing here, and their indiscriminate bombings and collective punishment and war crimes and use of white phosphorus, that is why they don't support Israel. So you can try to blame TikTok all you want, but the reality is what is waking people up.