Sacha Baron Cohen accuses TikTok of ‘creating biggest anti-Semitic movement since Nazis’

Sacha Baron Cohen, the actor, has accused TikTok of “creating the biggest anti-Semitic movement since the Nazis” as the video app battles allegations it is fostering a flood of abuse against Jewish people.

Baron Cohen said TikTok was feeding images to young users encouraging hate, telling TikTok executives: “Shame on you.”

His comments were made in a video call between Jewish celebrities and TikTok executives, set up by the video app in an effort to defuse a growing anti-Semitism row.

“If you think back to October 7, the reason why Hamas were able to behead young people and rape women was they were fed images from when they were small kids that led them to hate,” Baron Cohen told the call, according to the New York Times.

“What is happening at TikTok is it is creating the biggest anti-Semitic movement since the Nazis.”

The call was set up after Jewish celebrities and influencers signed an open letter last week saying that the app “is not safe for Jewish users”.

The app has been accused of failing to do enough to stop pro-Hamas propaganda and anti-Semitic content spreading on its platform.

Criticism has flared up again this week after TikTok users began posting a letter written by Osama Bin Laden 21 years ago under the hashtag #lettertoamerica.

The letter, published by the Observer in 2002, explains the rationale behind the 9/11 attacks and argues that the oppression of the Palestinian territories must be “revenged” in an assault against “Americans and Jews”.

The Guardian, which hosted the letter online, deleted the anti-Semitic letter this week after it began being “widely shared on social media without full context”.

TikTok has been fighting claims that the letter went viral on its platform. It said clips featuring the #lettertoamerica hashtag had been seen 13 million times on its platform – only a fraction of popular topics such as #travel, #skincare and #film.

A TikTok spokesman said: “This is not a trend,”

However, it said it had removed the #lettertoamerica hashtag.

Wednesday night’s call also included actors Amy Schumer and Will & Grace star Debra Messing.

TikTok executives Adam Presser and Seth Melnick represented the company on the call, with Mr Presser reportedly telling Baron Cohen there was “truth” in his comments that social media companies needed to do more.

A wave of anti-Semitism on social media sites has led to renewed calls in the US for TikTok to be banned. The app is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, although the company has repeatedly insisted that it is not influenced by Beijing

Nikki Haley, the Republican presidential hopeful, said on Thursday: “Thousands of TikTok users are siding with Osama bin Laden who murdered 3,000 Americans. This is a prime example of how our foreign enemies poison social media to advance their evil agenda.”

She added: “#BanTikTok. Stop giving the Chinese Communist Party the ability to influence Americans.”

TikTok has denied that its algorithm is influencing impressionable users and says it has removed almost a million videos related to the Israel-Hamas conflict. It has claimed the volume of pro-Palestinian posts on its platform reflects the fact that millennials are more likely to be sympathetic to the cause than previous generations.

A spokesman told the New York Times: “We recognise this is an incredibly difficult and fearful time for millions of people around the world and in our TikTok community.

“Our leadership has been meeting with creators, civil society, human rights experts and stakeholders to listen to their experiences and feedback on how TikTok can remain a place for community, discovery and sharing authentically.”

Baron Cohen has long campaigned against anti-Semitism on social media and in the past hit out at Mark Zuckerberg’s management of Facebook, saying it enabled “propaganda”.

Separately, IBM said on Thursday it had suspended advertising from Twitter, now known as X, after campaign group Media Matters said it had found the company’s adverts appearing next to pro-Nazi posts.

IBM said it had “suspended all advertising on X while we investigate this entirely unacceptable situation”.

Elon Musk, the owner of X, wrote: “Media Matters is an evil organisation.”

The European Commission has separately ceased advertising on Twitter, in response to what it said were “widespread concerns relating to the spread of disinformation”, especially related to the Israel-Hamas war.

A memo, reported by Politico, told departments to suspend advertising until further notice “to avoid risks of reputational damage to the Commission”.