It seems that the social networks are tired of being accountable for their position regarding the war between Israel and Gaza.
The two leading technology giants, Meta and TikTok, have made a series of changes to their platforms that blur transparency and limit the ability of advertisers and data researchers to examine real data.
Much has already been said about the fourth and significant dimension of the war of iron swords, the dimension of the war on public opinion, which takes place mainly on social networks.
While each of the sides tries to discredit the other side and spread its doctrine, the networks themselves are also exposed to quite a bit of fire and criticism that is directed towards them for supporting one side or another in the conflict.
These accusations led them to set up special committees and monitor with extra attention what is happening in the content filtering centers whose job it is to prevent the distribution of offensive content.
Instagram retires from politics
It seems that the networks are beginning to understand that it would be to their advantage to obscure the transparency of the data so that it would be more difficult to argue against them for taking a position in the conflict.
As part of the change launched by Meta on Sunday, accounts that post political content will no longer be promoted in content recommendations on Instagram and Threads, but will be able to post political content to their followers as usual.
This is after many users complained that since the war, politics has taken over their feed and they miss videos of cats, fashion and general escapism.
When the word "Zionist" became a hate expression
This week it was published in the Washington Post that the company Meta is looking into the possibility of aggressively removing posts containing the word "Zionist", in order to better deal with the wave of anti-Semitism online.
According to Meta, the word "Zionist" may express hatred when it is said as a synonym for "Jews" or "Israelis".
On the face of it, it seems that the use of the word "Zionist" comes to bypass the limitations and guidelines of Meta, and therefore the social network is considering expanding the enforcement to the use of this word as well.
At this point Meta removes posts that contain statements such as "This city is full of Zionists", "I hate these Zionists", "These Zionists are a bunch of rats" and "Kill the Zionists".
Opponents of the move claim that this could harm the existence of legitimate discussions on the subject of the war, and this goes without saying that from the point of view of the Jews, this is an ideological concept whose connection to the war is tenuous at best.
Regardless of how Meta will justify the discussion, it seems that the social network is tired of trying to protect itself and understands very well that it is better not to be a party to this war.
This understanding probably stems from the upcoming elections for the presidency of the United States and the fear of spreading fake news through the networks, which could once again entangle Meta in trouble and even impose a huge fine on it as was the case in the 2016 US presidential elections.
Tiktok blocks hashtag viewing data
Tiktok, Meta's biggest competitor, also removed without updating the possibility to view video viewing data by hashtag.
Researchers, social organizations and users on both sides of the fence (Israel-Palestine) have used this data to compare and discuss which side of the social network stands out more.
Tiktok denied that the step was taken against the background of the attempt to hit the company because it tends to highlight pro-Palestinian content.
According to her, she is constantly developing the platform and presenting the index as it is now, according to the number of posts and not according to views, puts Tiktok in line with the standard in the industry.
Let's just remember that last November Tiktok clarified that the information being circulated about it is wrong.
She explained that the hashtags on the platform are created and added by content creators and not by her.
In the same statement, she noted that "by simply looking at the number of views of a particular hashtag, it is possible to infer false narratives on the entire platform. The number of videos associated with the hashtag, alone, does not provide sufficient context."
This step has led to criticism against TikTok, claiming that this takes us back in terms of transparency and the ability to examine and control "potential damages".
According to the British Center for the Prevention of Online Hate, the group has used this data over the years to research and examine the spread of videos promoting anti-Semitism, eating disorders and other harmful content.
According to her, in the 2023 report they learned that Tiktok videos promoting steroids and drugs were viewed more than 589 million times.
The current change is another step taken by Tiktok to minimize damages.
A month earlier, she had restricted the Creative Center, in which researchers were examining the differences in viewing videos during the war.
Currently, the feature does not provide information on hashtags related to war or other political issues.
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In conclusion
Whether the networks lean on the side of Israel or the side of Palestine, they seem to understand very well that they will not be able to win this war.
This understanding leads to a series of measures that will blur the facts and figures so that it will be difficult to argue against them that they are pro-Israel or pro-Palestine.
The only thing that might be possible to say is that they are pro themselves.
Attorney Shani Mizrahi is the owner of a strategy, PR and crisis management office.
More on the same topic:
Social Networks
Meta
tiktok
Instagram
politics
Zionism
antisemitism
Hate