Is TikTok the new battleground for the Israel-Palestine conflict?

Published

1 year ago

December 23, 2023

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In the TikTok video, a little Gazan girl covered in ash asks for her mother. It’s one of millions of videos about the Israel-Hamas conflict gripping users on the social platform.

The heartbreaking stories and harrowing images pouring out of the conflict zone have set emotions boiling thousands of miles away on the streets of London – and turned social media into a battleground.

Millions of TikToks are uploaded every day giving differing perspectives on the Israel-Hamas war, as a new generation engages with this latest iteration of the long-running conflict. For many, it’s now a primary source of news.

The platform is known for short, snappy video clips that can gain colossal reach as they are shared and reshared.

“When anger is stirred up things tend to go viral much more quickly,” says Dr Christine Cheng, a senior lecturer in war studies at King’s College London.

In the US, Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley has even claimed that TikTok makes people “17% more antisemitic, more pro-Hamas” every 30 minutes – without any clear evidence to back it up.

Prominent UK TikTok creators – aligned on both sides of the conflict – say the platform offers an opportunity to promote conversation across the divide and highlight stories missed by mainstream media.

TikTok itself says it is “rapidly and robustly” responding to the Israel-Hamas war and has accelerated efforts to remove fake accounts and engagement.

Just looking at the numbers it would seem that TikTok’s content leans pro-Palestine, but the platform argues that this reflects wider trends on social media and among younger audiences generally.

“Any time you have a strong emotional response you’re much more likely to engage,” Dr Cheng says. “Social media platforms love that and of course we then tend to spread it and provoke it even more.”

As a result, we end up with increased polarisation and it becomes difficult to have calm conversations, she says.

Short video clips about specific events in the conflict struggle to encapsulate all the relevant context, she adds. “It’s very easy to take that particular incident and then it goes viral, and then the conversation stops.”

Dr Martin Farr, senior lecturer in contemporary British history at Newcastle University, said people have seen things on their phones in the last few months that they will never forget and may shape their perspectives on the conflict.

“It’s been so extraordinary, the extent of the violence, the extent of the loss of life and the sense that people could have that one side is to blame rather than a more complicated and more necessarily nuanced appreciation of the situation,” he says.

“There’s an impulse in all these things to be more provocative.”

Dr Farr also pointed to what he calls the “deflating” of the Hamas attack on Israel as numbers of people killed in Gaza have soared.

Asked if social media has fuelled divisions over Israel-Palestine, he says: “I don’t think it’s necessarily exacerbated it, I think it has damaged understanding.”

What do prominent UK TikTok creators say?

Unmissable with his distinctive short, colourful hair, 25-year-old Benny Greenstein has nearly 70,000 followers on TikTok and his “do you have to pick a side?” videos have racked up hundreds of thousands of views.

From a Jewish family and raised in Manchester with lots of Muslim friends, Benny says his background gives him a well-rounded view on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

“It’s just stuck in this toxic place and all we can do is promote peace and diplomacy.”

Many of his videos see him approaching people on the streets of London to talk about Israel-Palestine, asking them: Do you have to pick a side?

“Conversation and diplomacy is what gets you places. Rocket firing and antisemitism and islamophobia gets you nowhere.”

Some people in Benny’s TikToks are clear supporters of one side or another, while others are less sure or say there should be a humanitarian approach.

The comments are busy with users posting in support of Israel and Palestine or calling out “genocide”.

Benny says he is inspired by his grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, and is determined to use his platform to promote peace and love.

Isobel Dye, 22, is currently studying for a master’s degree at LSE and has also been posting on TikTok for several years, amassing more than 164,000 followers.

Her interest in the Israel-Palestine conflict, in particular the plight of Palestinians, was sparked after she attended a pro-Palestine rally in 2021.

“I try and speak about things not picked up by the mainstream media,” she says. “British people are deeply complicit [in the conflict], we can’t not have an opinion on this.”

Her TikToks usually feature news clips and stories with her speaking to the camera overlaid on top. In the last week she has reached around a million people, she says.

Isobel’s audience during that time was heavily female (80%), with 66% aged between 18 and 24. It’s a good example of TikTok’s reach with the younger demographic – just 28% of people aged 16-24 read newspapers in print or online, according to Ofcom.

Asked if TikTok is a good place for people engaging with the conflict, she says yes, so long as you have the right voices out there. “I try and centre Palestinian voices,” she adds.

Debra Barnes, 59, is the daughter of a Holocaust survivor who goes into UK schools to talk about antisemitism. In search of a new audience, she started posting TikToks about her family’s story too.

“I’m not exactly a TikTok prime audience,” she says. “My mission is to spread the stories of the Holocaust in the hope that it will educate people and something like that will never happen again.”

In the aftermath of the horrors of the Hamas attack on Israel, she started using TikTok to amplify calls for the safe return of the hostages.

“I feel like a tiny voice, David and Goliath almost… among this massive anti-Israel, antisemitic thing it has now grown into on social media,” she says.

“I don’t post about the conflict because there are so many people who are much more knowledgeable and do it much better than me… I’m just trying to do my bit to help the cause.”

Amid discussion about how it decides what content to show its users, TikTok published a lengthy blog post saying its recommendation algorithm does not take sides.

“The content people see on TikTok is generated by our community and recommendations are based on the content people have previously engaged with.

“TikTok does not ‘promote’ one side of an issue over another,” it said.

Videos are ranked using prediction scores based on what TikToks users have viewed and engaged with previously.

On the Israel-Hamas war specifically, TikTok said it is responding “rapidly and robustly” and has removed more than 925,000 videos for violating policies around things like violence and hate speech.

It added: “TikTok does not allow inaccurate, misleading, or false content that may cause significant harm to individuals or society, regardless of intent.”

The platform said that between 7 October and 31 October it removed more than 50,000 videos that it said contained “harmful misinformation”.

While it might not be an app that’s popular with politicians – indeed it’s banned on UK government devices – it’s clear that TikTok is a huge part of the discussion about Israel and Palestine.

The attack on Israel on 7 October and the ensuing invasion of Gaza have energised a new generation to engage with the struggle for peace in the Middle East. And it’s places like TikTok where that conversation is happening.

Watch Crossing the Divide, a Sky News documentary looking at how the Israel-Hamas war has divided people in the UK, Saturday 23 December at 9pm.

World

‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort breaks silence on Trump’s tariffs

Published

3 hours ago

April 11, 2025

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'Wolf of Wall Street' Jordan Belfort breaks silence on Trump's tariffs

‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Jordan Belfort has told Sky News there’s “no way” Donald Trump is guilty of insider trading or market manipulation.

Opponents say the president has questions to answer after he said it was a “great time to buy” shares – four hours before the stock market surged on Wednesday when he paused tariffs.

Mr Belfort told Gillian Joseph the fact Mr Trump made the statement on social media meant it was public, rather than him tipping off a few people.

Tariffs latest: Trump – ‘everything will be beautiful in the end’

Speaking on The World programme, Mr Belfort said: “I personally don’t find it overly suspicious. Especially since he’s told it to everybody at once.

“If he hadn’t said anything and told five of his best friends ‘I’m gonna ease this tariff situation – you should be buying’, that would be illegal.”

Insider trading is when people take advantage of non-public information to buy or sell shares and make a gain.

The former stockbroker was famously played by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film about his early life and admitted crimes related to stock manipulation.

Mr Belfort said Mr Trump’s post was just repeating what the president had said previously, and that buying when share prices plunge is a well-known investment move.

“He had been saying that all along [to buy], it wasn’t the only time he’d said that,” said Mr Belfort.

“[Treasury] Secretary Bessent had been saying that too. It’s a really basic piece of advice.”

Stock markets around the world plunged dramatically on Monday due to the start of America’s wide-ranging tariffs on imports from around the world.

The world economy was rattled again just two days later when the president said nearly all of the taxes would go on hold for 90 days.

The key S&P 500 index jumped nearly 10% – a huge daily increase.

Rival Democrat politicians say Mr Trump‘s encouragement to buy raises “grave ethics concerns”.

Some are calling for an urgent inquiry into whether any of his family or administration officials benefited by dealing in the stock market ahead of time.

The White House said the president’s post was simply reassuring Americans “about their economic security in the face of nonstop media fearmongering”.

Mr Belfort accused Democrat figures of trying to “earn brownie points with the media and their party”.

‘Not gonna be pretty’

Despite the mid-week surge, turbulence in stock markets appears far from over – chiefly because China and the US remain locked in a tariffs stare down.

American indexes closed down again on Thursday, Japan’s Nikkei fell about 5% early on Friday, and Hong Kong stocks are heading for their worst week since 2008.

Gold meanwhile, considered a “safe haven” asset, has climbed to a record price and earlier today passed the $3,200/oz level for the first time.

Mr Belfort told Sky News that while he was against tariffs generally, President Trump’s dramatic intervention was necessary as the US has an “insane” trade imbalance and imports far more than it exports.

“The United States has been drained of its wealth, drained of its factories,” he said.

“It’s not gonna be pretty,” added Mr Belfort. “There’s going to be pain – but the path we were on before is simply unsustainable. It had to change.”

He said he was sceptical over fears the tariffs will hit US consumers hard, with some predicting goods – including popular items such as the iPhone – could jump in price if costs are passed on.

The former trader said he believes firms would shift production from China, which is subject to a tariff of more than 100%, to places such as India, and that exemptions would eventually be agreed.

He also gave the thumbs up to Elon Musk‘s controversial government efficiency role which has forced thousands of jobs cut.

“I love what is being done because the amount of abuse and waste and fraud, it’s absolutely insane,” said Mr Belfort.

“It’s a great thing that’s happening. Obama talked about doing it, Clinton tried it; this is not a new idea to try to make the government more efficient.”

If Mr Musk leaves or quits in the near future, as is rumoured, Mr Belfort said the world’s richest man has installed “some very seasoned business people that really care about the country”.

World

Day 82: Stock market whiplash – did Trump’s friends get richer?

Published

3 hours ago

April 11, 2025

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Day 82: Stock market whiplash - did Trump's friends get richer?

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With markets tumbling again, President Trump has been meeting his cabinet – where more questions were put to him over his turbulent tariff plan. On Day 82, US correspondents Mark Stone and James Matthews discuss what happened.

Plus, Mark has been on the road in Wisconsin and Minnesota, speaking to people caught up in the crossfire of the trade war.

If you’ve got a question you’d like James, Martha, and Mark to answer, you can email it to trump100@sky.uk.

Don’t forget, you can also watch all episodes on our YouTube channel.

World

How Trump changed his mind on tariffs

Published

18 hours ago

April 10, 2025

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“Liberation Day” just gave way to Capitulation Day.

US President Donald Trump pulled back on Wednesday on a series of harsh tariffs targeting friends and foes alike in an audacious bid to remake the global economic order.

Mr Trump’s early afternoon announcement followed a harrowing week in which Republican lawmakers and confidants privately warned him that the tariffs could wreck the economy.

His own aides had quietly raised alarms about the financial markets before he suspended a tariff regime that he had unveiled with a flourish just one week earlier in a Rose Garden ceremony.

Tariffs latest: Beijing takes fight to Trump

The stock market rose immediately after the about-face, ending days of losses that have forced older Americans who’ve been sinking their savings into 401(k)s to rethink their retirement plans.

Ahead of Mr Trump’s announcement, some of his advisers had been in a near panic about the bond markets, a senior administration official told Sky News’ US partner network NBC News.

Interest rates on 10-year Treasury bonds had been rising, contrary to what normally happens when stock prices fall and investors seek safety in treasuries.

The unusual dynamic meant that at the same time the tariffs could push up prices, people would be paying more to buy homes or pay off credit card debt because of higher interest rates. Businesses looking to expand would pay more for new loans.

Two of Mr Trump’s most senior advisers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, presented a united front on Wednesday, urging him to suspend the tariffs in light of the bond market, the administration official said.

In a social media post, Mr Trump announced a 90-day pause that he said he’ll use to negotiate deals with dozens of countries that have expressed openness to revising trade terms that he contends exploit American businesses and workers.

One exception is China. Mr Trump upped the tariff on the country’s biggest geopolitical rival to 125%, part of a tit-for-tat escalation in an evolving trade war.

Mr Trump reversed course one week after he appeared in the Rose Garden and unveiled his plan to bring jobs back to the United States. Displaying a chart showing the new, elevated tariffs that countries would face, Mr Trump proclaimed: “My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day.”

It proved short-lived. Markets plunged in anticipation of heightened trade wars, wiping out trillions of dollars in wealth.

Democrats seized on the issue, looking to undercut a source of Mr Trump’s popular appeal: the view that he can be trusted to steer the nation’s economy.

“Donald Trump’s market crash has vaporised a whopping $104,000 from the average retirement account,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, said on Wednesday on the Senate floor, hours before the president’s reversal.

The episode laid bare the rifts within Mr Trump’s team of senior advisers as the White House struggled to offer a clear, consistent argument about the duration of the tariffs.

While Mr Bessent seemed open to negotiations, Peter Navarro, a senior trade adviser, appeared to take a more hard-line posture.

Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla chief executive who has been advising Mr Trump on the government workforce, called Navarro “dumber than a sack of bricks,” while Mr Navarro described Mr Musk as someone who is merely “a car assembler, in many cases”.

But the weeklong drama also underscored the peril of a policymaking process that is often tied to the wishes and vagaries of one man: Donald Trump.

Asked about the dust-up between Mr Musk and Mr Navarro, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a golf partner of Mr Trump’s, said: “I don’t think it matters. The only one who matters is Trump.”

Markets tend to favour predictability, as do business leaders deciding where to build new plants. When Mr Trump sets a course, however, there are bound to be detours.

A friend of his who spoke to him in recent days said Mr Trump gave no sign he was about to “back down quickly on this stuff”.

Mr Trump believes other countries trade unfairly and sees tariffs as a tool to make the United States more competitive, the person said.

“He’s very confident it’s going to work for him,” the person added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

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And yet in the run-up to Wednesday’s announcement, Mr Trump and his aides were also hearing from GOP lawmakers and outside allies urging an alternative path.

One was Larry Kudlow, who hosts a show on Fox Business Network and was a senior economic adviser in Mr Trump’s first term.

Mr Kudlow told NBC News that he has had “ongoing” talks with friends in the West Wing about the need to negotiate with other countries before the United States slaps them with tariffs that stand in perpetuity.

Describing Mr Trump’s move Wednesday as “fabulous,” Mr Kudlow added: “Dealmaking is the best thing to do. In the last 48 hours, Trump has gone from non-negotiating to negotiating.

“It’s very clear that Bessent is now the point man on trade. Very clear.”

Anxious GOP lawmakers also weighed in.

Mr Graham said he spoke to Mr Trump at length on Tuesday night and told him he had been hearing from car manufacturers who are worried about how the tariffs would affect their business. BMW operates a plant in Mr Graham’s home state and is one of the companies he said he had spoken to.

Senator John Kennedy, a Republican lawmaker who was also in touch with the administration, said on Tuesday that he planned to have lunch with Mr Bessent. On Wednesday, he told NBC News he was also talking to the White House.

Mr Kennedy likened Mr Trump to the “pit bull who caught the car”. Now, he said, the question becomes: “What are you going to do with the car?”

After more market losses this week, and with pressure mounting from Republicans on Capitol Hill, Mr Trump began having second thoughts.

In his first term, he often viewed the ups and downs of the stock market as a kind of report card on his presidency, celebrating its rise. The downturn had got his attention.

“People were getting a little queasy,” he acknowledged Wednesday on an event with NASCAR racing champions.

“Over the last few days” he began to more seriously consider pausing the additional tariffs, he told reporters later in the day in an Oval Office appearance.

One prospect that intrigued him was personally negotiating new trade deals with the countries looking to get out from under the tariffs, the senior administration official said.

He’d made up his mind. Sitting with Mr Bessent and Mr Lutnick, he crafted the note announcing the 90-day postponement and ending, for the time being, the biggest economic crisis of his young presidency.

“We wrote it from our hearts, right?” Mr Trump said. “It was written as something that I think was very positive for the world and for us, and we don’t want to hurt countries that don’t need to be hurt, and they all want to negotiate.”

The day closed with the Dow Jones Industrial Average up nearly 8%, erasing some – but not all – of the “post-Liberation Day” losses.

Messy as it all may have seemed, his administration insisted that all is unfolding as planned.

“You have been watching the greatest economic master strategy from an American president in history,” White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on Wednesday afternoon.