TikTok becomes vital weapon in Palestinians’ digital war
A Palestinian takes a selfie in front of his destroyed house in Khan Yunis, Gaza, after it was hit by Israeli airstrikes on 26 May 2021
Entsar Abu Jahal reports in Al-Monitor:
Millions of Palestinians and supporters of the Palestinian cause have posted videos with the hashtag #Free_Palestine on TikTok. The app, which is usually used for entertainment, promotes content based on geography.
A number of celebrities rallied behind the Palestinian cause, showing support online as Palestinians conveyed their messages and mobilized international sympathy by reporting events live for the entire world to see.
The Chinese application also had a major hand in spreading news about Sheikh Jarrah and the rest of Jerusalem due to the relative restriction of Palestinian content on other applications such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. The virtual conflict heated up before the actual exchange of fire in Gaza, with the hashtags #SaveSheikhJarrah and #GazaUnderAttack reaching millions of users.
On May 19, senior defense correspondent for Israel Hayom Yoav Limor noted that there is a “huge and worrying gap” between the #GazaUnderAttack and #IsraelUnderAttack hashtags on social media.
On May 17, Israeli writer Micky Levy reported for Walla that the military confrontation between Hamas and Israel backfired as videos of people waving the Palestinian flag got hundreds of thousands of views worldwide. Palestinian videos documenting protests in mixed cities inside Israel also went viral.
Levy explained that TikTok groups related content, such as videos with Palestinian or Israeli hashtags.
Izz ad-Din al-Akhras, a social media researcher for the Quds News Network, told Al-Monitor that the Palestinians, most of them young people, used TikTok before the recent fighting for entertainment. But they quickly exploited the platform to support the Jerusalem cause and the residents of Sheikh Jarrah, as well as to gather Arab and international support and sympathy, he said.
Akhras added that Palestinians were publishing videos about what was happening in Jerusalem in Hebrew and Israelis would respond to them, creating a contentious back-and-forth on the platform. Later, when the war broke out in Gaza, they continued to report from the ground and attracted sympathy and international support, he continued.