A spate of videos featuring teenage girls pretending to be Holocaust survivors is TikTok’s latest antisemitic abomination
Numerous users of the social media video platform TikTok are pretending to be Holocaust survivors in a abominable new antisemitic trend dubbed “trauma porn”.
Some videos feature the user wearing a Star of David or the striped clothing worn by inmates at Nazi concentration camps, while others feature makeup to simulate bruising. Other videos use Auschwitz as a backdrop.
Most of the users are teenage girls and consequently we are not showing the images, although they remain available on TikTok and other social media platforms.
Some of the videos have thousands of views and likes.
However, some users have defended the videos on the basis that they are somehow educational.
One user, for example, has removed her video, saying: “I’ve always been interested in the history of the Holocaust and just wanted to make a creative video informing people about it on TikTok. It was never intended to be offensive.”
Another reportedly said: “I’m very motivated and captivated by the Holocaust and the history of World War II. I have ancestors who were in concentration camps, and have actually met a few survivors from Auschwitz camp. I wanted to spread awareness and share out to everyone the reality behind the camps by sharing my Jewish grandmother’s story.”
Last week, TikTok announced that it had removed 380,000 videos in the United States over violations of its hate speech policy.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has previously reported on the infestation of far-right videos and Holocaust-denial on TikTok, and has taken action in the past over Holocaust mockery on the platform.
Campaign Against Antisemitism has launched a petition calling for new legislation urgently to introduce a requirement for technology companies to remove racist incitement within set timeframes, a duty of care for social networks with personal liability for executives, and tighter requirements to provide evidence to police under warrant.
The petition can be signed here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/333146/
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “These videos are TikTok’s latest antisemitic abomination. The obsession among too many users of the platform with Holocaust mockery and Holocaust denial should be of grave concern to the company, but time and again TikTok shows even greater indifference than other social media networks to the hate spewed on its platform. Tech companies have shown that they are incapable of regulating themselves, which is why we have called on the Government to bring forward an Online Harms bill immediately.”Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.
Campaign Against Antisemitism continues its robust engagement with social media companies over the content that they enable to be published, and we continue to make representations to the Government in this connection.
