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The Wall Street Journal conducted an experiment using automated accounts on TikTok to understand what kind of content the app shows young users about the Israel-Hamas conflict. The bots, registered as 13-year-old users, were served highly polarized and fear-inducing videos about the conflict, with a majority supporting the Palestinian view. While some videos were posted by news organizations, the majority were posted by influencers, activists, anonymous accounts, and the Israeli government. TikTok's algorithm, which determines what content to serve based on user engagement, makes it challenging for researchers and parents to understand the experiences of young users on the app. TikTok claims that the Journal's experiment does not reflect the experiences of real teens on the platform. The app has implemented family-control features and removed millions of videos with shocking, violent, hateful, and harmful content. However, the experiment revealed that even with restricted mode enabled, the bots were still inundated with war-related content. The content served to the bots was mostly pro-Palestinian, but pro-Israel videos were also interspersed, including those from the Israeli military and government. The experiment highlights the potential impact of TikTok on young users and the need for parents and researchers to understand the content they may encounter on the app. [Extracted from the article]

The web of shell companies and middlemen managed by services firm Bridgewaters makes it hard for authorities to track assets and enforce sanctions. [Extracted from the article]