"We must ensure that they are not freely exploited by hatred distributors"
Photo: AP
The fight against anti-Semitism in social media continues in Israel: Today (Wednesday), the Tik Tuk company announced in the Knesset 'Committee on Aliyah, Absorption and Diaspora - that it will fight against antisemitic content distributed by it.
The debate was attended by the largest social networks and Internet giants in the world who sent their representatives to the Knesset for a public hearing - including Twitter, Facebook and Google.
"It has never been easier to spread anti-Semitic propaganda and hatred through social media," MK Kotler-Wensch said.
"These platforms have a responsibility to ensure that they are not freely exploited by hatred distributors. We all have a duty to demand responsibility from them in taking this responsibility."
The Knesset member also addressed Tiktok directly and said, "I have a mobile device with an open Tiktok app and the challenge: # HolocaustChallenge which is gaining momentum on the social network, in which millions of young people pretend to be Holocaust victims, put on make-up and dress accordingly and in some cases even express sexual gestures. "While they are disguised as victims of the Holocaust, a recurring motif in some of the videos is a photo allegedly from heaven after the murders of the Jews in the Holocaust."
Representatives of the Chinese social network said that 90% of the videos that violate the company’s values were removed before anyone saw them.
Elizabeth Canter, director of Tiktok's government relations in Israel, added that "anti-Semitism is an abomination, and anti-Semitic content that expresses hatred has no place in our platform. Work, including removing the content and closing accounts. "
Kanter suggested that the Tiktok widget be used to increase Holocaust remembrance and Holocaust studies.
Kanter and colleague Eric Shadwans, a policy director at Tiktok with expertise in hate content, were invited to review the social network's policies and actions to combat antisemitic content, and according to Kanter "in a world that is becoming more polarized day by day it is probably a very difficult challenge, but we will never stop working to "Make Tiktok a safe platform for our community so that they can feel free to express their creativity."
Kanter and Advance stressed that community policies and rules are intolerant of content that attacks or incites violence against an individual or group, or permits content that includes hate speech.
"Technology tools proactively flag content or accounts that encourage hate or extreme content by identifying images, word filters, and machine-based automated tools. Audit teams are dedicated content managers whose job it is to review content, respond to inappropriate content reports, and act when content violates. "The community rules. They receive training on content and hate ideologies, and in Israel the team consists of Hebrew and Arabic speakers."
Kanter stressed that the policy on hate is regularly updated to identify trends or activities that go against the rules ahead of time.
"Tiktok regularly collaborates with NGOs and leading bodies in Israel and the European Union, as the name implies, the World Jewish Congress and the Holocaust Educational Foundation, to proactively promote educational content about the Holocaust and the dangers of anti-Semitism."
She said that last year, Tiktok began publishing a transparency report and was the first platform in the world to announce the opening of a transparency center that invited policy makers, regulators and stakeholders to take a closer look at the online content control process.
The latest report, which covers January-July 2020, showed that 96% of videos that violated community rules were removed before a user reported them and 90% were removed before users watched them.
Dvir Kahana, director general of the Ministry of Diaspora, emphasized that there is a large gap between the declarations and the official policy - and the actual implementation. "It is a great commitment of the networks to invest monitoring and removal resources, Kanter, for its part, told of 4 million recently downloaded videos, a team working on the subject and 41 requests for information by the Israeli law enforcement authorities in the matter, which were answered in 85% of the cases.
Ronen Menalis, director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, added that since the previous discussions in the committee, there has been cooperation and willingness on the part of Tiktok, including downloading content.
In this context, we monitor activities that include discourse of hatred, delegitimization and incitement against the State of Israel. "
Ronen Castello, Twitter's director of policy, spoke about a series of talks with government officials in Israel and international organizations about monitoring anti-Semitism, and training volunteers in the matter, which will begin this coming December.
Jordana Kepler, Israel's director of Israeli and Diaspora policy, thanked the committee chairman for his involvement in the issue, promised that the company's policy on the matter would also apply to Instagram, and that this was a first and not a last step on the issue.
Dan Lavie participated in the preparation of the article
