The short-form video app TikTok on Thursday refuted claims that the platform has promoted content in favour of Palestine stating that a hashtag showing support for Israel in its fight against Hamas had received more views than a pro-Palestine hashtag.
The hashtag “standwithisrael” received 46 million views in the United States between October 7 and October 31, according to a TikTok blog post. In contrast, the hashtag “standwithpalestine” received 29 million views over the same period.
“Over the last few days, there has been unsound analysis of TikTok hashtag data around the conflict, causing some commentators to falsely insinuate TikTok is pushing pro-Palestine content over pro-Israel content to U.S. users,” TikTok said in the blog post.
Over 9,000 people have died as a result of Israel’s assault of Gaza after Hamas terrorists killed 1,400 people there on October 7, according to Gaza authorities. Since October 7, more than 925,000 videos in the area have been taken down by TikTok due to violations of its standards including violence and misrepresentation.
The app, which is owned by ByteDance, a Chinese internet company, claimed to have removed 24 million fraudulent accounts.
