Tiktok trend of Holocaust victims criticized for being ‘hurtful and offensive’



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Tiktok trends come and go really fast these days, but there are some pretty horrible ones that shouldn’t even be trending in the first place.

A trend on the Chinese-owned social video platform in which people portray themselves as victims of the Holocaust was recently criticized by none other than the administration of the Auschwitz Memorial itself as “hurtful and offensive.”

In a Twitter post, the museum issued a statement responding to this trend in which users are seen wearing striped uniforms similar to concentration camp prisoners or armbands like those imposed on Jews under the rule. Nazi.

“The visible trend on Tiktok can be really hurtful and even considered offensive. Some of the online examples are dangerously close to or already beyond the boundary of the trivialization of history and disrespect for victims. Some were not created to commemorate anyone, but to become part of an online trend, ”the statement said.

The statement also connotes that there is a need to continually raise awareness, particularly on social media, on how to properly commemorate the Holocaust: “It always demands respect for the victims, proper language and context, as well as factual accuracy. Educators should work with young people to present facts and stories, but also teach and discuss how to commemorate in a meaningful and respectful way. “

Auschwitz Memorial ends its statement with a critique of social media platforms in general.

“On social media, there are much more scandalous topics, such as algorithms that promote anti-Semitism or the presence of Holocaust denial that is a dangerous and horrible carrier of anti-Semitism and hatred. Social media platforms unfortunately allow disclaimer content to remain on their platforms. “

While the social media video app has yet to address this allegation, Tiktok US chief security officer Eric Han made a blog post on August 21 that addresses the topic of hate on the platform.

In the post, Han listed several ways Tiktok counteracts the spread of hate, and even shared that they were able to remove more than 380,000 videos in the US For violating their hate speech policy, they banned more than 1,300 accounts for content or hateful behavior, and removed more than 64,000 hateful comments.

“To be clear, these numbers do not reflect a 100% success rate in capturing every hateful content or behavior, but they do indicate our commitment to action,” Han says in the post.

To date, videos that follow this trend of ‘victims’ on Tiktok are no longer visible on the For You page of the app, and also if you check the hashtag #holocaust. Hopefully this isn’t a trend anymore.



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