Top Israeli TikTok employee resigns after accusing company of antisemitism
Creators on TikTok claim the app has become increasingly hostile for Jews. Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images
By Mira Fox January 30, 2024
Barak Herscowitz, a lobbyist for TikTok in Israel, resigned from his post Monday amidst accusations that the app is promoting antisemitism.
According to a statement he posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, Hercowitz said that “people’s priorities become sharpened” during war and chaos, which led to him stepping down. “Am Yisrael Chai,” he added at the end of the post.
Jewish Insider reported that in 2023, Herscowitz, whose LinkedIn says he was the “vertical lead in the government and public sector” at TikTok, sent a memo to senior management at the company alleging anti-Israel bias on the app.
The memo noted that paid video campaigns about the plight of the Israeli hostages captured on Oct. 7 were rejected for being “too political” while paid campaigns for “humanitarian campaigns that serve Hamas’ narrative, while fundraising for children in Gaza” were accepted. Additionally, the memo alleged that content uploaded by users showing graphic pro-Palestinian content were not removed, despite violating safety policies on the platform, due to biased and politically motivated moderation teams.
TikTok denied the claims and said its policies were applied without bias. The platform does not allow “political or issues-based advertising” or videos depicting violence. It does allow humanitarian campaigns.
Other Jewish employees at TikTok have claimed that the work environment is hostile, citing antisemitic posts on Lark, the company’s internal messaging system. Additionally, they said that a support group for Palestinians was created at the company after the war, but not one for Israelis; a Jewish affinity group, MazalTok, already exists at TikTok.
Jewish content creators on the app have long complained about antisemitic harassment on their accounts, which has risen since the war began. Antisemitic videos often remain up even after being flagged to moderators. TikTok met with Jewish creators and leaders to discuss the issues in December.
TikTok wrote in a statement on its blog that they are working to address antisemitism on the app through ongoing anti-bias training with their moderators and creating a new team to address antisemitism and Islamophobia.
Following Herscowitz’s resignation, some have been urging other Jewish employees at the company to resign on X. “If you work at TikTok and have a conscience,” wrote Michael Eisenberg, a venture capitalist funding Israeli companies, “then follow Barak’s lead and resign!”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
