TikTok denies MY's claims that it blocks pro-Palestinian content

Social media platform TikTok has responded to accusations by the Malaysian government that it was blocking pro-Palestinian content, saying that these claims were "unfounded". 

Last week, Malaysia warned that it would be taking action against social media platforms such as TikTok and Meta after they were accused of restricting content that supported Palestinians in the war between Israel and Gaza.

Don't miss: Malaysian government questions TikTok on blocking of Israel-Hamas content

Meta has reportedly responded saying there was no truth to this accusation and that it was not deliberately quieting voices on Facebook, according to Reuters. 

TikTok has also since said that it was not blocking pro-Palestinian content. It noted in a statement to MARKETING-INTERACTIVE that its community guidelines apply equally to all content on TikTok and that it is committed to consistently enforcing its policies to protect its community.

Both Meta and TikTok though have stated that Hamas, which is the Palestinian Islamist movement that governs Gaza, as a dangerous organisation and actively bans content that shows support for it. 

TikTok also updated its community guidelines to remove content that supports the attacks or mocks victims affected by the violence, according to a statement by the platform. 

"If content is posted depicting a person who has been taken hostage, we will do everything we can to protect their dignity and remove content that breaks our rules. We do not tolerate attempts to incite violence or spread hateful ideologies. We have a zero-tolerance policy for content praising violent and hateful organisations and individuals, and those organisations and individuals aren't allowed on our platform. We also block hashtags that promote violence or otherwise break our rules," it said. 

TikTok added that since the attack on October 7, it has removed over 775,000 videos and closed over 14,000 livestreams promoting violence, terrorism, hate speech, misinformation, and other violations of its community guidelines in the impacted region as of October 26. 

Meta has also introduced a series of measures to address the spike in harmful and potentially harmful content spreading on its platforms, according to a statement by the social media platform. 

"Content containing praise for Hamas, which is designated by Meta as a dangerous organisation, or violent and graphic content, for example, is not allowed on our platforms," it said in a statement. 

This comes shortly after Malaysian government questioned TikTok on blocking of Israel-Hamas content for allegedly blocking content related to the Israel-Palestine conflict on the platform.

According to Minister Fahmi Fadzil, he has received complaints from users where they shared that their content which contained related terms or words like Hamas was automatically removed due to “community guidelines violations”.

The minister told reporters during a Freedom For Palestine rally at Dataran Merdeka that the platform has been contacted for an explanation but it was deemed unsatisfactory.

“So, I may seek guidance from the Foreign Ministry regarding several matters and we will summon them (TikTok)," he was quoted saying on NST.

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