Enough is enough: it’s time to get real on TikTok

It wasn’t another crude, ironic, and utterly inappropriate comedic trend on the app. In mid-November, hundreds of media savvy Gen Z “influencers” fervently leapt onto the latest social bandwagon filming their reactions to reading Osama bin Laden’s 2002 “Letter to America” as if it were an eye-opening masterpiece on foreign policy.

As the collective West gasped in horror as our youngest voters reflexively justified the atrocities committed by Al-Qaeda, not least the attacks on 9/11, TikTok committed to removing the videos and downplayed how many people saw them.

In sum, it is estimated that some 14 million users saw the content originally posted on the platform – with millions having viewed the videos since.

But the political normalisation of an individual as vehemently repulsive as Osama bin Laden is a symptom of the fragility of social cohesion and democracy in the era of social networking. It illustrates how far the Overton Window has shifted, that as long as you espouse anti-colonial rhetoric, any extreme utterance is considered legitimate discourse.

In minutes, TikTok’s spate of bin Laden apologia spread to X, unsurprisingly finding a natural home among the Twitterati. In fact, progressive author Gretchen Felker-Martin called the attacks against the US on 9/11 “principled and defensible”. Conspiracy theorists and provocateurs (many of whom have become household names over recent years) likewise wasted no time, grasping the opportunity to exploit the trend to exacerbate social and political tensions.

“Syrian Girl” – an online political commentator who boasts over 320,000 followers on X – leant into the rift, tweeting “If Osama bin Laden’s letter blew zoomers minds, just wait till they hear this video letter from the 2003 Iraqi resistance” replete with a video from anti-US forces in Iraq. Yes, apparently, there still is an audience for Iraqi Ba’athist content online.

In the era of online desensitisation, no atrocity is too taboo for such divisive online personalities. Just weeks ago, Syrian Girl claimed that the Israeli government was responsible for firing on citizens fleeing the Supernova music festival where Hamas terrorists killed over 360 innocent partygoers.

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Despite the media firestorm having calmed and TikTok pledging to actively take down the videos of individuals praising Osama bin Laden, online extremism and political division – even those forms of political division that are motivated by well-intentioned stupidity – will become a mainstay in modern political discourse.

TikTok, like all social media platforms, curates suggested content through predictive analytics, extrapolating past browsing behaviours to identify content that is likely to be of interest to the user. As a majority of users are not the “mean” voter – we all have our own unique political opinions – over the course of time, many users are being served with more extreme content.

Combined with echo chambers that provide positive feedback to increasingly divisive online dialogue, including our family and friends who are likely to espouse similar political inclinations and impart positive reinforcement through likes, comments, and shares, increasing numbers of online communities are accepting extreme content.

As author and activist Eli Pariser succinctly explained, “it’s much easier than it’s ever been to live in an information environment that is several standard deviations from the normal”.

To see the echo chamber and feedback loop in action, Syrian Girl’s tweet claiming that the IDF killed festival goers received 138,000 likes, while reports have indicated that one of the TikTok influencers who had supported Osama bin Laden garnered 10,000 likes. These metrics indicate strong positive feedback for content creators, many of whom are in active search for internet stardom and serve to foment confirmation bias for whatever appalling ideas they post.

Therefore, we must acknowledge that the truths we hold to be self-evident are now being upended, and by extension, we must further acknowledge the fragility of our social cohesion and democracy.

We, therefore, cannot forfeit the levers of influence and information in the 21^st century to overseas actors who do not have our best interests at heart.

According to technology ethicist Tristan Harris, children in China are limited to 40 minutes of TikTok a day, with the platform primarily filled with educational content ranging from science experiments to history. The discrepancy is so extreme that the expert compared TikTok in the West and China to “opium” and “spinach”. Children outside of China, on the other hand, are exposed to pro-bin Laden content.

As we begin to understand how platforms can be weaponised against Western polity, as well as the cognitive impacts of social media use on younger generations, it is imperative for the government to take decisive action and implement real long-term reforms.

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