On Wednesday, November 15, Jewish actor Sacha Baron Cohen slammed TikTok for allegedly creating “the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis. The film “Dictator” fame actor made these remarks during a private video call meeting joined by TikTok executives and other officials and over 30 Jewish TikTok content creators and celebrities. It is notable that the short video platform has come under fire after a video containing Osama Bin Laden’s letter to the USA shortly after the 9/11 attack went viral, with thousands of youths sharing the video in support of the terror leader’s views.
The video conference, which lasted roughly 90 minutes and was attended by more than 30 people, included actors Sacha Baron Cohen, Debra Messing, and Amy Schumer. In the meeting, TikTok was represented by its head of operations, Adam Presser, and Seth Melnick, the company’s global head of user operations. The management stated that they wanted to learn more about the experiences of the actors and TikTok content creators to enhance the app, The New York Times reported.
During the meeting, Sacha Baron Cohen said, “What is happening at TikTok is it is creating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis. Shame on you! The actor added that TikTok could “flip a switch” to silence such videos.
“If you think back to Oct. 7, the reason why Hamas were able to behead young people and rape women was they were fed images from when they were small kids that led them to hate,” Cohen continued.
The celebrities and content creators emphasised how TikTok’s mechanisms failed to prevent a deluge of comments such as “Hitler was right” or “I hope you end up like Anne Frank” under videos made by them and other Jewish TikTokers.
One TikTok executive Adam Presser, the head of operations who is also Jewish, agreed, “Obviously a lot of what Sacha says, there’s truth to that,” but added that there was no “magic button” that would solve all of the problems.
He also appeared to have condoned the usage of anti-Semitic slogans such as “from the river to the sea,” which calls for the annihilation of all Jews from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Adam Presser asserted that it was a matter of interpretation and that the phrase was being used “casually”.
This prompted a strong response from Debra Messing who said, “It is much more responsible to bar it at this juncture than to say, ‘Oh, well, some people, they use it in a different way than it actually was created to mean.’ I understand that you are in a very, very difficult and complicated place, but you also are the main platform for the dissemination of Jew hate.”
Notably, TikTok organised the meeting with the Jewish celebrities on Wednesday in reaction to an open letter they published last week criticising the short video application.
Jewish celebrities write letter slamming TikTok
“Simply put, TikTok lacks critical safety features to protect Jewish content creators and the broader Jewish TikTok community, leaving us in digital and physical danger. Sadly, rampant antisemitism is a common problem that TikTok has failed to address for far too long. The daily reality for Jewish content creators on TikTok includes death threats, endless threatening comments on posts (many just for being Jewish) and a barrage of harassment in all forms of TikTok-facilitated interaction,” the letter read signed by Amy Schumer, Debra Messing and other Jewish celebrities read.
Osama Bin Laden’s letter goes viral, TikTok issues statement saying content justifying Osama’s letter not a viral trend
It is pertinent to note that after Islamic terrorist Osama Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ in which he explained why Al Qaeda executed the attacks of 9/11 in America went viral over social media, TikTok was alleged to have been promoting posts justifying the deadly terror attack.
On Thursday, TikTok took to X to say that the platform is removing posts promoting Bin Laden’s letter as it wrote, “Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism. We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform.”
The company, however, also claimed that the content did not reflect a pervasive trend, but rather a few posts on the platform. “The number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our platform are inaccurate. This is not unique to TikTok and has appeared across multiple platforms and the media.”
Content promoting this letter clearly violates our rules on supporting any form of terrorism. We are proactively and aggressively removing this content and investigating how it got onto our platform. The number of videos on TikTok is small and reports of it trending on our… https://t.co/n9Zo7l94r2
— TikTok Policy (@TikTokPolicy) November 16, 2023
This came after a large number of Americans demanded a ban on TikTok for promoting Osama’s letter. On Friday (17th November), Former UN Ambassador and South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley called for a ban on the Chinese video app over the viral videos supporting Osama. “Ban Tik Tok. Stop giving the Chinese Communist Party the ability to influence Americans,” she said. American TV personality Donny Deutsch said that around 51 percent of the young Americans sided with Laden for attacking the Twin tower. “This is majorly because of the TikTok app run by China. What is happening to people’s minds? I am really worried,” he said.
Israel War Room Twitter handle said that TikTok is a Chinese Communist Party propaganda app that is doing incalculable damage to the mental health of young people in America, adding that it broadcasts one-sided and dishonest content on Israel.
The letter that went viral on TikTok and was supported by thousands of American youths is an English translation of an original Arabic letter, published by the Guardian in 2002. Following the controversy, Osama Bin Laden’s ‘Letter to America’ was removed by The Guardian from its website on 15 November, 21 years after it was published. The English translation of the original Arabic letter by the Islamic terrorist was published in ‘Observer’ of ‘The Guardian’ on 24th November 2002.
It is notable that Israel attacked Gaza in retaliation to the terrorist attack by Hamas on 7th October 2023. After the war started, there were multiple incidents of pro-Gaza and pro-Palestine demonstrations in the USA and other countries. Moreover, Jews especially Jewish students have been abused, harassed and even attacked in the US and other parts of the world.
