TikTok algorithm promoted anti-Semitic death camp video

TikTok has deleted videos that promoted anti-Semitic death camp.
TikTok has deleted videos that promoted anti-Semitic death camp. Photo credit: Getty

TikTok has deleted a number of videos that used an anti-Semitic song about Jewish people being killed in Auschwitz. 

The song appeared on the app last Sunday, with users featuring the lyrics: "We're going on a trip to a place called Auschwitz, it's shower time" in their videos.

Auschwitz was a German Nazi death camp in Poland, where 1.1 million people died during World War Two. They were gassed, starved and worked to death. Almost one million of the people who died were Jewish. 

One video featuring the song showed a giant robot scorpion with a swastika attacking and gassing people.

The video alone received more than six million views, and the user reportedly gained 12,000 new followers after posting the video.

Nearly 100 TikTok users also made use of the song with related graphics, gaining another half a million views.

Director of investigations and enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism Stephen Silverman said the video was sickening. 

"It was incredibly distressing to watch this sickening TikTok video aimed at children showing a swastika-bearing robot grabbing and incinerating Jews as the music poked fun at Jewish men, women and children being killed with poison gas at Auschwitz."

Silverman said these videos are bombarding children with extremely racist content.

"They are being radicalised and groomed by extremists when they are using their smartphones and tablets without parental supervision."

"Social networks keep proving that they will not tackle this incitement. They must be forced to by regulation or we will scarcely recognise future generations."

A TikTok spokeswoman told the BBC keeping users safe is top priority. 

"Our community guidelines make clear what is not acceptable on our platform."

"We do not tolerate any content that includes hate speech, and the sound in question, along with all associated videos, have now been removed.

"While we will not catch every instance of inappropriate content, we are continuously improving our technologies and policies to ensure TikTok remains a safe place for positive creative expression," she said.

TikTok took about eight hours to remove all the offending videos.