European regulator Thierry Breton shared a stern letter to TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew on Thursday, claiming his office has “indications” that the platform is being used to distribute disinformation and illegal content around the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
Breton serves as the European commissioner for the internal market. He said TikTok must be “timely, diligent and objective” about removing misinformation, particularly since minors often turn to the platform as a source of news.
Breton issued similar letters to X owner Elon Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week.
“First, given that your platform is extensively used by children and teenagers, you have a particular obligation to protect them from violent content depicting hostage taking and other graphic videos which are reportedly widely circulating on your platform, without appropriate safeguards,” Breton wrote in the letter.
Notice the weasel word of terrorism? So, what Hamas did was terrorism, but what Israel does on a daily basis is just what… geopolitics? I’ve yet to see a state that calls to ban Israeli nationalists from platforms for spreading complete falsehoods, like the whole beheaded babies lie that’s going around now (and being amplified by the president of the United States). That is definitively misinformation, and the use of such falsehoods to attempt to justify Israel’s response is itself an act of terrorism, using fear and intimidation to pursue political goals.