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Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that TikTok is largely to blame for the growing hatred of Israel and its war in Gaza among “smart, well-educated” young Americans.
During her appearance at the Israel Hayom Summit in New York City, Clinton lamented that so many young Americans have been inundated with anti-Israel propaganda on the social media platform.
“They are seeing short-form videos – some of them totally made up, some of them not at all representing what they claim to be showing – and that’s where they get their information,” Clinton said.
Former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said social media platform TikTok is partly to blame for the anti-Israel propaganda that many young people have ingested. (Brendan Smialowski/Getty; Anthony Kwan/Getty)
The former secretary of state spoke on the anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment that has risen throughout the world, particularly since Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack in Israel.
“Smart, well-educated, young people from our own country, from around the world, where were they getting their information? They were getting their information from social media, particularly TikTok,” she said.
In the weeks following the Oct. 7 massacre, the social media platform faced accusations of not doing enough to clamp down on hate-filled antisemitic and anti-Israel content.
An internal memo, written by a senior TikTok employee in its Israel office and obtained by Fox News Digital, highlighted in detail an unequal policy toward paid humanitarian campaigns pitched by Israeli families compared to anti-Israel groups, as well as a flippant, even biased, approach to organic content posted by users to the site that is graphically violent and deeply inciting.
EXCLUSIVE: JEWISH EMPLOYEES AT TIKTOK SHARE DETAILS OF HOSTILE, ANTISEMITIC WORK ENVIRONMENT
An soldier attaches an Israeli flag atop of an armored personnel carrier near the border with Gaza, in southern Israel, April 15, 2024.
Clinton said Tuesday that young people getting their information about Israel from TikTok is a “serious problem.”
“That is where they were learning about what happened on Oct. 7, what happened in the days, weeks, and months to follow. That’s a serious problem. It’s a serious problem for democracy, whether it’s Israel or the United States, and it’s a serious problem for our young people.”
Clinton continued, noting that young people seemed entrenched in their anti-Israel views when she tried to confront them.
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Clinton said TikTok has altered young people’s perception of Israel. (Gabby Jones/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
She said having a “reasonable discussion” with these individuals “was very difficult because they did not know history, they had very little context, and what they were being told on social media was not just one-sided – it was pure propaganda.”
Clinton also accused young Jewish Americans of being ignorant on the topic.
“It’s not just the usual suspects. It’s a lot of young Jewish Americans who don’t know the history and don’t understand.”
Fox News Digital’s Ruth Marks Eglash contributed to this report.
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Gabriel Hays is an associate editor for Fox News Digital.
