TikTok, a social media platform, stated on Friday that the charges made by the government of Malaysia that it was banning content that supported the Palestinian cause were “unfounded.”
On Thursday, the country of Malaysia, which has a predominantly Muslim population, issued a warning that it may take action against social media companies TikTok and Meta, alleging that their platforms had been accused of suppressing content that supported Palestinians.
On Thursday, Meta responded, asserting that the allegation included “no truth” and that the company does not intentionally censor opinions on the Facebook network it manages.
In an email sent to Reuters on Friday, a spokeswoman for TikTok denied the allegations made by Malaysia that the company was censoring content that supported Palestinian rights.
“There is no basis for the claim. Our community rules apply to any content that may be found on TikTok, and we are dedicated to rigorously enforcing our policies to safeguard our users, a spokesman for the company stated.
Both Meta and TikTok consider Hamas to be a “dangerous organization” and remove anything that praises it from their platforms. Hamas is the Palestinian Islamist movement that administers Gaza.
On October 7, militants of Hamas carried out attacks on towns in southern Israel. According to reports from Israel, the attack resulted in the deaths of around 1,400 people, including children, and the kidnapping of over 200 persons, including young newborns.
The health ministry in Gaza, which Hamas runs, reported on Thursday that Israel’s retaliatory air attacks had resulted in the deaths of 7,028 Palestinians, including 2,913 children.
Reuters could not independently verify the tolls’ accuracy. Since the outbreak of violence, both of the social media companies have implemented new policies to strengthen moderation and delete or label violent visual content.
Midway through October, Meta announced that it had removed or tagged nearly 800,000 pieces of content written in Hebrew and Arabic in the days following the attack on October 7.
Similarly, TikTok announced this week that it has deleted over 775,000 videos and 14,000 livestreams since the hack.
