Sada Social Center expresses its deep concern and strong condemnation regarding TikTok’s appointment of Erica Mindel—a former instructor in the Israeli army’s Armored Corps—as the platform’s new Manager of Hate Speech Policy.
According to reports reviewed by Sada Social, Mindel previously worked with the U.S. State Department under Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the Biden Administration’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism. Prior to that, she served as an instructor in the Israeli army’s Spokesperson’s Unit. In her new role, Mindel will be tasked with formulating TikTok’s hate speech policies, shaping relevant legislative and regulatory frameworks, and monitoring trends—particularly those related to antisemitic content.
Sada Social views this appointment as a highly concerning indicator for the future of digital freedoms for Palestinians. The center warns of the serious implications that Mindel’s military background may have on TikTok’s moderation practices, especially regarding Palestinian reports of incitement, bias, and the silencing of their narrative. Assigning someone affiliated with an army currently under international investigation for genocide in Gaza to lead hate speech policy only entrenches existing biases and undermines the principles of fairness and digital justice.
Sada Social’s 2024 Digital Index revealed that 27% of all digital violations targeting Palestinian content occurred on TikTok. According to TikTok’s own transparency report for the second half of 2024, the platform complied with 94% of the Israeli government’s content removal requests, all while imposing strict censorship on Palestinian content. This included the deletion of videos with clear journalistic value, and the targeting of accounts belonging to journalists, media outlets, activists, and supporters of the Palestinian cause.
Sada Social also underscores that TikTok has failed to undertake any meaningful internal review of its policies, even after the South African government submitted video evidence to the International Court of Justice (ICJ)—footage that was published on TikTok and depicted Israeli soldiers celebrating the destruction of Palestinian homes, mocking victims, and writing messages on bombs before they were dropped on Gaza. Instead of responding to these disturbing violations, TikTok has continued its partnerships with a political and military regime currently under international investigation.
no longer will there be rampant, disorganized hate speech, instead there will be structured, well trained hate speech
brb gonna sign up on TikTok and do a “TikTok ban any%” speedrun by posting “free Palestine” and “Israel is committing genocide” vids
Hiring a terrorist instructor as it’s hate speech manager will surely go well
Hate speech manager
Manager to increase hate speech?
To ensure the correct kind of hate speech is allowed.
This is the natural progression.
They started hiring a bunch of natsec ghouls when Trump tried to ban them in 2020, and increased it under Biden when the dems jumped on the “tiktik is spying on you! Evil CCP is turning the youth into communists!” Bandwagon, and started algo boosting right-wing content under Trump pt II.
when the dems jumped on the “tiktik is spying on you! Evil CCP is turning the youth into communists!”
TikTok IS spying on you.
But it’s true that the evil CCP is no longer communist: just totalitarian crony capitalist.
TikTok IS spying on you.
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No more so than any other social media app, and as someone who lived in America at the time, China having my data was far less threatening than America having my data.
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Tiktok duplicated their server infrastructure just for America so no American data would leave the country.
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See the thing about boosting what the state department wanted boosted and censoring what they told them to censo. Tiktok isn’t Chinese propaganda, it’s American propaganda.
But it’s true that the evil CCP is no longer communist: just totalitarian crony capitalist.
The CPC’s tendency to favor the working class over capital suggests otherwise; they’ve raised a billion people out of poverty, while India is a net exporter of food but still has children dying of hunger-related diseases. When a baby formula factory in China killed or sickened a dozen babies due to greed and gross negligence, they took the executives out back and shot them, and opened the market up to foreign imports. When the same thing happened in the US, nobody went to jail and the US didn’t even approve EU imports of formula because that would hurt the profits of the company that had just murdered literal babies.
I would never call China a utopia, but you have to actually understand a thing if you want to make meaningful criticisms of it.
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JFC, it’s as though they were going out of their way to hire the most inappropriate person possible for the role.
This headline seems disingenuous in a way, since IDF service is mandatory. It could be any Israeli, with any set of beliefs. I haven’t read enough about this person to know what their stance on things actually is, but this really seems like a bad faith headline.
She was an instructor, that fits beyond mandatory service
Later in the article it says that Tiktok has complied with 94% of the Israeli government takedown requests and it’s also been blocking pro-Palestine content. So it’s not even a slight reach to assume that they’re gunna hire someone with similar views.
This is very fair. I still think that the headline is predominantly click bait, though.
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Cool, they got SLAMMED!. That’ll learn them.
Been a while since we had a good slamming.
Any speech not in favor of Tik Tok will be considered anti-semitic. You’re either with the Tide pod challenge or you’re racist!
Well, that explains my ban
Israel has mandatory service.
They could have just said “Israeli” but that wouldn’t get as many clicks.
Imagine getting swerved by the Taylor Swift Fan Page lmfao.
She was an instructor of the Armored Corps
Yes they have mandatory service, but she was a lot extra
And?
She could always reject as a conscientious objector. Fuck genocide!
OK this is kind of stupid. I am pretty sure all people in Israel are required to serve in the Military for a couple years. Her real crime is simply being born Israeli. If that’s your problem…say that.
The Nazis had a draft… With damn near 100% draft rate
Do you think that made it ok because under German law they had to?
Because during much of the war, if they objected they were just shot.
So surely, if jail is an excuse, your logic dictates that you also excuse every Nazi from what they did and you don’t judge any of them…
Unless there’s an inconsistency with your logic for some reason
Most people tho, think jail for a couple months is better than participating in a genocide. But everyone’s personal values are different.
And they get to become instructors in such short time?
Not all are. If you are clergy, often Ultra-Orthodox, you get exempted.
