TikTok Banned My New Book Even Before It Was Published

Last month, I interviewed my brother Tevi Troy during the Jerusalem book launch of his latest, “The Power and the Money: The Epic Clashes Between Commanders in Chief and Titans of Industry.” Eventually, he turned the tables, asking me about my book, “To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream,” published September 17. I summarized the argument: that the spread of aggressive, doctrinaire anti-Zionism in academia “isn’t just a Jewish crisis” and “isn’t just a Zionist crisis,” but is “a crisis of liberalism” and higher education. Somehow, TikTok decided to remove my two minute, eight second riff, declaring: “This video violates our Community Guidelines” by passing on “misinformation.” Apparently, TikTok and its Chinese owners are more bullish about America’s universities than most of us are.

I tried understanding what triggered the ban. It mocked TikTok executives’ repeated denials that TikTok has an antisemitism problem. The managers were reacting to assessments that in one year, the Jew-hating comments on the popular app rose 912 percent, that Jew-haters use code-words like “juice” for Jews and “H!tl3r” and that the all-powerful algorithm, which pushes videos through TikTok’s FYP For You Page tends to send viewers down conspiracy-oriented “rabbit holes,” spewing Jew-hatred. 

TikTok’s Jew-hating problem predates October 7. Back in 2020, NBC News interviewed half a dozen teenagers who reported that “they experience antisemitism nearly every time they post content to the platform… whether or not the content is about their Judaism.” Julia Massey told reporters that “Before, I guess, I ‘came out’ as Jewish on my TikTok … I was getting almost all positive response.” But since one Jewish-oriented video, “I’ve received antisemitic comments, regardless of the content.”

American Jews face double-trouble these days. Jew-hatred has gone from the margins to the Big Tent. America’s Silenced Majority remains pro-Jewish and overwhelmingly pro-Israel. But dynamics on social media, and a polarized political culture that broadcasts extremists too loudly, has given the haters an outsized profile. And since Oct. 7, the intensity of pro-Palestinian, anti-Zionist Jew-haters has shaped public discourse, eclipsing the quiet but less passionate support Jews and the Jewish State enjoy.

America’s Silenced Majority remains pro-Jewish and overwhelmingly pro-Israel. But dynamics on social media, and a polarized political culture that broadcasts extremists too loudly, has given the haters an outsized profile.

At the same time, Jew-hatred, the longest and most plastic hatred, has also become the invisible hatred, the overlooked hatred, the excused hatred. Especially in universities, the zero-tolerance for other prejudices disappears when it comes to Jews. So Jews find them targeted by more American bullies than ever – as many American institutions downplay this growing scourge.

The TikTok problem reflects this double bind – while transcending the Jewish question too. TikTok’s Chinese ownership worries Americans so much that Congress passed the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” which President Joe Biden signed. It demands that TikTok be sold, to avoid this nefarious Chinese influence. While the Chinese enjoy access to 170 million users’ private information, they also orchestrate the conversation. Somehow TikTok suppresses videos sympathetic to Tibetans and Uighurs oppressed by China, while boosting support for the Palestinians, among others.

In the absence of any clarifying information from TikTok, it seems my video fell victim to these broader dynamics. The Jewish People Policy Institute, the Global ThinkTank of the Jewish People, posted the video. And yes, I confess: My analysis, like my book, is pro-Israel and pro-Zionist, as well as pro-liberal and pro-American. Alas, those positions are unpopular among too many influencers.

Clearly, these platforms enjoy outsized power in our democracy. Ironically, the surge in canceled posts reflects an attempt to limit the mainstreaming of hate online.

It’s confusing. Hate breeds hate. In an age when too many people lack moral fiber and common sense, we farm out decency to monitors, because expressions of bile grow exponentially. Each hater posting validates many others. Yet, beware: Censors breed censoriousness. They wield their power arbitrarily, and, in this case and so frequently, heavy-handedly.

TikTok’s “Community Principles” of April, 2024 claim that “To strike the right balance with free expression, we restrict content only when necessary and in a way that seeks to minimize the impact on speech.”  Obviously, once again, when it comes to Jewish content, let alone Zionist content, the impulse to restrict is far greater – as is the chilling “impact on speech,” ultimately depriving us of the robust debate we need.

Professor Gil Troy, a Senior Fellow in Zionist Thought at the JPPI, the Jewish People Policy Institute, the Global ThinkTank of the Jewish People, is an American presidential historian. His next book, “To Resist the Academic Intifada: Letters to My Students on Defending the Zionist Dream” will be published this fall.