An independent human rights organization says TikTok is hosting and promoting neo-Nazi accounts that are denying the holocaust, glorifying Hitler, supporting white supremacist mass shooters and more. They’re also using generative AI, coded words and audio, and manipulated or obfuscated images to evade filters. “TikTok hosts hundreds of accounts which openly support Nazism and use the video app to promote their ideology and propaganda,” the Institute for Strategic Dialog report says. “This includes videos featuring Holocaust denial; glorification of Hitler, Nazi-era Germany, and Nazism as a solution to contemporary issues; support for white supremacist mass shooters, and livestreamed footage or recreations of these massacres. ISD says they found a network of “hundreds” of accounts after initially seeing just one neo-Nazi. And, similarly to how YouTube has been shown to be used by racists to amplify their messages, TikTok’s algorithm works to give people more of what they seem to like. That’s a self-reinforcing loop which leads to more and more of the same kind of content, and when it comes to hate speech or misinformation, the algorithm works exactly the same way on TikTok’s “For You Page.” “After viewing the pages of 10 accounts in the network and 10 videos total, a new dummy account scrolled through just three videos in TikTok’s For You Page (FYP) before receiving a recommendation for Nazi propaganda,” the ISD report says. “For a longer-standing dummy account which has engaged with more such content, most videos in TikTok’s FYP promote Nazism or hate speech.”When reported, TikTok is not taking the videos down, or at least not taking them down promptly, ISD says, despite TikTok’s community guidelines around hateful ideologies, promotion of violence, Holocaust denial, and more.
via forbes: Neo-Nazis Using Generative AI On TikTok To Reach 10s Of Millions
siehe auch: NazTok: An organized neo-Nazi TikTok network is getting millions of views. Self-identified Nazis are openly promoting hate speech and real-world recruitment on TikTok. Not only is the platform failing to remove these videos and accounts, but its algorithm is amplifying their reach. Content warning: This report includes examples of racist extremist content. Summary TikTok hosts hundreds of accounts which openly support Nazism and use the video app to promote their ideology and propaganda, as identified in the analysis laid out in this report. Our research began after finding one such account, which was expanded into a wider network of 200 accounts by examining the pro-Nazi accounts it followed and some of the accounts those accounts followed, as well as searching for violative content and using TikTok’s algorithm. Accounts were included in this study if they produced several videos expressly promoting Nazism or if they featured Nazi symbols in their usernames, profile pictures, etc. Key findings include: Pro-Nazi content is receiving tens of millions of views on TikTok. This includes videos featuring Holocaust denial; glorification of Hitler, Nazi-era Germany, and Nazism as a solution to contemporary issues; support for white supremacist mass shooters, and livestreamed footage or recreations of these massacres. Self-identified Nazis discuss TikTok as an amenable platform to spread their ideology which can be used to reach ‘much more people’, even if accounts are brand new or have a low following. TikTok is failing to take down violative videos and accounts, even when the content is reported by users. ISD reported 50 accounts in the network that violated TikTok’s community guidelines around hateful ideologies, promotion of violence, Holocaust denial, and other rules. The accounts, which collectively received over 6.2 million views, included those that either promoted Nazism in their videos or featured hate speech so long as they also included Nazi symbols in their profile pictures, usernames, nicknames or descriptions. After one day, all 50 accounts remained active, with all reports returning “no violation”. Accounts and videos promoting Nazism are algorithmically amplified, with TikTok quickly recommending such content to users engaging with similar far-right hate speech. After viewing the pages of 10 accounts in the network and 10 videos total, a new dummy account scrolled through just three videos in TikTok’s For You Page (FYP) before receiving a recommendation for Nazi propaganda. For a longer-standing dummy account which has engaged with more such content, most videos in TikTok’s FYP promote Nazism or hate speech. These videos often feature AI-generated media. This content frequently denigrates minorities and promotes Nazism, including, for example, an AI-generated translation of a speech from Hitler which continues to go viral. Such content helps modernize Nazi propaganda, reach a broader international audience and can be used to skirt platform moderation; TikTok Has a Nazi Problem Not only is TikTok’s algorithm promoting Neo-Nazi content, extremist organizations are also using the platform to recruit new members and encourage real-world action. Neo-Nazis and white supremacists are sharing Hitler-related propaganda and trying to recruit new members on TikTok, according to a new report from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) shared exclusively with WIRED. The TikTok algorithm is also promoting this content to new users, researchers found, as extremist communities are leveraging the huge popularity of TikTok among younger audiences to spread their message. The report from ISD details how hundreds of extremist TikTok accounts are openly posting videos promoting Holocaust denial and the glorification of Hitler and Nazi-era Germany, and suggesting that Nazi ideology is a solution to modern-day issues such as the alleged migrant invasion of Western countries. The accounts also show support for white supremacist mass shooters and livestream-related footage or recreations of these massacres. Many of the accounts use Nazi symbols in their profile pictures or include white supremacist codes in their usernames.
