TikTok has long attracted scrutiny from the United States government, with some officials deeming the Chinese-owned social media app a security risk. Increasingly, other influential groups are also criticizing the platform, claiming that it allows for a variety of harmful content to proliferate—especially content related to the current war between Israel and Hamas.
Fortune has learned that on November 16, about 40 mostly Jewish tech leaders met with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and others on the company’s leadership team to express their concern over data they say shows that TikTok’s algorithm is favoring content that supports Palestine over pro-Israel content at a disproportionate rate. (Others, including celebrities and creators, have also met with TikTok to express similar worries in recent weeks.) The group, which includes the founders of Gusto, Bonobos, and Tinder, plus partners from firms like Techaviv and Bloomberg Beta, among other tech players, says that their goal was to get answers to what they see as an unexplainable discrepancy. They also wanted to share concerns over a rise in antisemitic incidents across the country and any possible correlation to online content distributed by social media platforms–particularly TikTok, which has become the de facto search engine for Gen Z users. Lastly, they were hoping to convince TikTok to take action too: To reexamine its algorithms and its policies.
