The Tuesday edition of Today on NBC committed a random act of journalism when national correspondent Kate Snow opened up the possibility that TikTok is the reason why young people defend Hamas.
Snow began her dive into TikTok’s impact on public opinion by talking with Boston University’s Joan Donovan who noted that the app is a terrible place to get your news, “You're just watching content that's 15 seconds to a minute long and so any nuance of conflict on the scale of Israel and Hamas is going to be lost in the details.”
Indeed, if you see a 15-second video of someone saying Israel bombed a hospital, you’re not going to see a military expert give a detailed rebuttal about flight paths or bomb craters.
As for specific content, Snow then introduced, 13-year-old Melanie Goldstein, who “is Jewish and lives outside New York. When she scrolls TikTok she says she tends to see videos about Palestinian casualties.”
Goldstein explained, “All the videos that I come across, it's not like things that are happening in, like, Israel and, like, the effect of the war on Israel. It's only, like, on Palestine.”
Snow followed up by asking, “Do you feel like there tend to be more people posting pro-Palestinian views?” to which Goldstein simply answered, “Yes.”
Moving from the anecdotal evidence to the more-in depth analysis, Snow recalled, “A couple of weeks ago, former tech executive Jeff Morris went viral for a long thread on X accusing TikTok of ‘anti-Israel bias’ saying it was part of why Israel “was losing the information war with high school and college students” and last week Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher wrote an op-ed headlined “why do young Americans support Hamas? Look at TikTok.’”
Gallagher, who is the chairman of the House China Committee, was then shown on Fox proclaiming that, “The hate we're seeing spewed against Jewish Americans on TikTok should remind us of the basic facts and the fact is that this app is controlled by a Chinese company that is at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.”
Snow then explained, “An NBC news analysis found a pretty even split between young people watching pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli content on TikTok in the past 30 days. Videos with the #StandWithPalestine were viewed 20 million times videos with the #StandWithIsrael, were viewed 18 million times.”
While it was nice that Snow and NBC are open to the possibility TikTok and China are poisoning young minds on the issue, here they ran into a problem. In the aforementioned Morris thread, he notes that the top “Stand with Palestine” hashtag has 2.9 billion views, whereas the top “Stand with Israel” hashtag has 207.7 million. Related hashtags with added emojis show similar patterns. It was not clear how NBC arrived at 20 and 18 million. Snow should’ve explained NBC’s methodology more clearly.
I then looked at the data and saw that Israel is losing the TikTok war by a longshot.
— Jeff Morris Jr. (@jmj) October 26, 2023
As an example, the top hashtag is 3b views for Palestine versus 200m views for Israel.
If you look at other hashtags, it is clear that Israel has a distribution issue. pic.twitter.com/vrTomLYjSw
Snow did give TikTok’s rebuttal where it claimed “it's removed 925,000 video in the conflict region for violating policies around violence, hate speech, misinformation, and terrorism, including content promoting Hamas and says its detection systems are ‘evolving.’”
Back live and in studio, Snow concluded by warning, “In 2018, the research institute Rand Europe found evidence of groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda pushing propaganda on social media and the Department of Homeland Security warned in 2019 for some violent extremist movements the online space appears essential to their growth. With Hamas, law enforcement officials tell NBC News they fear that social media could be used, guys, to inspire lone wolf attacks.”
Kudos to NBC for a mostly decent report. Now, if only they would apply it to other issues.
Here is a transcript for the November 7 show:
NBC Today
11/7/2023
8:04 AM ET
KATE SNOW: Young people on both sides sharing messages of support and activism. Other posts promoting division and even hatred. Adults under 30 are turning to TikTok for information. A 2022 Pew study found a quarter of young people regularly get news on the app. Joan Donovan studies social media at Boston University.
JOAN DONOVAN: You're just watching content that's 15 seconds to a minute long and so any nuance of conflict on the scale of Israel and Hamas is going to be lost in the details.
SNOW: 13-year-old Melanie Goldstein is Jewish and lives outside New York. When she scrolls TikTok she says she tends to see videos about Palestinian casualties.
MELANIE GOLDSTEIN: All the videos that I come across, it's not like things that are happening in, like, Israel and, like, the effect of the war on Israel. It's only, like, on Palestine.
SNOW: Do you feel like there tend to be more people posting pro-Palestinian views?
GOLDSTEIN: Yes.
SNOW: A couple of weeks ago, former tech executive Jeff Morris went viral for a long thread on X accusing TikTok of “anti-Israel bias” saying it was part of why Israel “was losing the information war with high school and college students” and last week Republican Congressman Mike Gallagher wrote an op-ed headlined “why do young Americans support Hamas? Look at TikTok.”
MIKE GALLAGHER: The hate we're seeing spewed against Jewish Americans on TikTok should remind us of the basic facts and the fact is that this app is controlled by a Chinese company that is at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.
SNOW: An NBC news analysis found a pretty even split between young people watching pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli content on TikTok in the past 30 days. Videos with the #StandWithPalestine were viewed 20 million times videos with the #StandWithIsrael, were viewed 18 million times.
TikTok says “unfortunately some misinformed commentators have mischaracterized our work to prevent the spread of hate speech and misinformation surrounding the crisis in Israel and Gaza, especially as it relates to anti-Semitism.” The platform says since the start of the war it's removed 925,000 video in the conflict region for violating policies around violence, hate speech, misinformation, and terrorism, including content promoting Hamas and says its detection systems are “evolving.”
DONOVAN: What we're seeing on TikTok is not unfamiliar from all of the other misinformation we've seen during moments of intense crisis.
SNOW: Tiktok also points out they are not the only social media platform seeing a lot of content about the war and dealing with misinformation or harmful posts, and this can get even more serious, right? In 2018, the research institute Rand Europe found evidence of groups like ISIS and Al-Qaeda pushing propaganda on social media and the Department of Homeland Security warned in 2019 for some violent extremist movements the online space appears essential to their growth. With Hamas, law enforcement officials tell NBC News they fear that social media could be used, guys, to inspire lone wolf attacks.
