In the wake of the Hamas attacks that killed more than 1,200 Israelis last weekend and the resulting war, users around the world have taken to social media to stay updated on the situation. On TikTok, one of the most popular social media apps, users who searched for terms like “Palestine” and “Israel” were presented with not only video clips of users expressing their opinion on the conflict, but also videos, some filled with graphic photographs and biased or misleading data, for which users paid TikTok. advertise on its platform, Fortune found.
Among those sponsored videos is one submitted by user “eye. on. palestine,” which features a montage of dead children, explosions and bombed-out cityscapes with the caption, “Please give my country and my other people the strength to get through the hard times we are living in. “”He has to get away with Israel because of him” with the ominous plea: “Let’s show the world what we are capable of. “(Eye on Palestine did not respond to Fortune’s request for comment. )
Searches for terms such as “Palestine,” “Israel,” “Israel, Palestine,” “Israel’s War” on TikTok revealed many examples of such sponsored content, combined with other user-created videos. In the maximum of cases seen through Fortune, the sponsored videos appear to have been created through users. But thanks to TikTok’s “Promote” feature, those users were able to inject their perspectives into the conversation, earning a prominent spot in those high-traffic, highly political searches, by just a few. Dollars.
Joseph Peretz, a self-proclaimed Jesus lover and public transportation operator founded in Staten Island, New York, paid $7 to promote a selfie video of himself praying for Israel. This video came to light when users searched for “Israel” on the app earlier this week, garnering 135,000 views (compared to their usual prayer videos that get less than 500 views). “I started advertising and speaking on TikTok because I wanted other people to hear the message of Jesus,” Peretz told Fortune. .
According to marketing expert Yu Yang Pei, providing sponsored content with those search effects is anything that can be done seamlessly and cost-effectively through TikTok’s “Promote” feature. For as little as $7, TikTok users can get thousands of insights on TikTok, paving the way for a cheap way to spread propaganda about current affairs.
“A user who doesn’t have credentials can manipulate [users’] TikTok paid products,” says Pei, chief expansion officer at social media marketing firm AX10. “They can get their point across to a wide audience just by spending money. “
A TikTok representative told Fortune that users can’t express keywords to get their sponsored videos to appear in searches (in other words, a user can’t pay to advertise a video so that it appears in particular searches for “Israel”). delivered according to the logic of TikTok’s algorithm, just like any other video on the platform.
The TikTok spokesperson also said that all search effects are moderated according to the company’s network guidelines, which prevent users from searching for violent, hateful, or misleading content. He noted that the term “Israel-Palestine” does not violate the guidelines.
Shortly after Fortune informed TikTok that it planned to publish an article about sponsored content in Israeli-Palestine searches, however, the company removed sponsored content from searches for “Israel,” “Palestine,” and “Israel Palestine. “In a post, a TikTok representative told Fortune that the company has now added Israel and Palestine to its evolving list of ad-eligible search terms. The representative also noted that TikTok has completely gotten rid of some of the site’s sponsored videos. )
About eight years after trolls linked to Russia used Facebook classified ads to promote the department in the U. S. In the run-up to the U. S. presidential election, sponsored Israeli-Palestinian content on TikTok shows how simple it remains to spread misleading data and influence public discourse on social media. means. with a minimal budget.
And it comes at a time when much of the public is wary of the media, as populist politicians and influencers urge their fans to “do their own research,” a practice that affects scrolling across TikTok, X, Instagram and other platforms. The sponsored videos viewed through Fortune featured graphic imagery, strong bias, misleading information, and deeply devout opinions.
All social platforms have been criticized for spreading misinformation and graphic and vitriolic content around the war and politicized issues.
On Tuesday, European industry leader Thierry Breton sent letters to X and Meta CEOs Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, respectively, urging social platform executives to address erroneous data and destructive content around Hamas and Israel-Palestine, in accordance with EU laws. Grassroots organizations are calling on Jews and Israelis to remove social media platforms to see the problematic and disturbing data that has proliferated in those data centers since Hamas’ first attack this month.
But buying influence on social media to influence perspectives on political issues has proven pernicious and successful. Starting in 2015, Meta (then Facebook) allowed Russian marketers to spend $100,000 on Facebook classified ads to influence the 2016 U. S. presidential race with “social divisions and political messaging,” said Alex Stamos, Facebook’s then-chief security officer. Around the same time, the political consulting organization Cambridge Analytica gathered Facebook’s know-how to run highly targeted pro-Donald Trump classified ads on Ted Cruz’s campaigns, prompting the Federal Trade Commission to fine Facebook $5 billion in 2019 for privacy violations.
To be more informed, Fortune covers the role of social media in the conflict:
Elon Musk demanded proof that X spreads “false content” about Hamas attacks. Executive director Linda Yaccarino now says in Brussels that X is working “24 hours a day” to combat disinformation.
EU gives Zuckerberg’s Meta 24 hours to act against disinformation about Hamas’ attack on Israel
Elon Musk and Linda Yaccarino are the first global crisis in X with the war between Israel and Hamas. All symptoms point to a dumpster fire.
Although TikTok did not exist in 2016, the ByteDance-owned platform has gained a fair percentage of complaints for spreading problematic content. He has faced several lawsuits for reporting suicides, self-harm, and disturbing content for children, which has had consequences for intellectual health. According to Bloomberg, a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate cited by the New York Times shows that TikTok is starting to recommend content about eating disorders and self-harm to 13-year-olds within 30 minutes of their arrival on the platform.
The pay-per-promotion feature used by users to stream Israeli-Palestinian content is separate from TikTok’s main advertising business, in which marketers pay TikTok to target videos based on granular criteria, such as beyond purchase behavior. The Chinese personal social media platform ByteDance, the corporate company, generated about $10 billion in profits last year, according to estimates.
But TikTok is investing heavily in new initiatives, adding e-commerce, with the recent launch of TikTok Shop. According to a recent report by the newspaper Information, the company is on track to lose $500 million on its business investments this year.