Technical Paper in the Advanced Course English

Fritz-Winter-Gesamtschule Ahlen

August-Kirchner-Straße 13

59229 Ahlen

A technical paper on the topic:

"What role does terror propaganda play on TikTok?"

Mert Ertas

Advanced Course English

12th grade

Schoolyear 2023/2024

Nina Hammer

Deadline: 16th February 2024

Table of Contents

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1

2. Facts on TikTok ............................................................................................................................ 1

3. What is propaganda? ................................................................................................................... 2

4. What is terrorism? ....................................................................................................................... 3

5. How often can you find terror propaganda on TikTok? ............................................................... 4

5.1. Statistics .................................................................................................................................... 6

5.2. Evaluation of the statistics ........................................................................................................ 7

6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 8
1. Introduction

In my technical paper I am going to be answering the question "What role does terror
propaganda play on TikTok?". This is an important topic to write about, due to the rising
radicalization of teenagers. My technical paper should enlighten readers on the topic and
give them up to date statistics on the matter. Furthermore, I am also quite interested in
the topic because I have often encountered such videos on many different platforms.
Therefore, it is with utmost importance to ensure that teenagers and other users
understand what propaganda is and how often one can encounter such propaganda.

Since terrorism is such a complex topic including a broad spectrum of separate groups
with even more distinct ideologies and goals, I am going to be focusing on Terror groups
originating in the Middle East, such as The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL/ISIS in
short), Kata'ib Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, as well as Al-Shabaab (Jawad Al-Tamimi).
Additionally, I will only focus on militant terrorist organizations, who fight in the real
world, unlike cyber terrorists.

To answer my question, I am going to name facts on TikTok first, then I will be explaining
what propaganda and terrorism is. Following this, the main point of this technical paper
will be the segment, in which I am going to answer the question of how often one can find
such propaganda on TikTok. This segment will also include statistics and the evaluation of
the statistics. Lastly, I will be concluding my findings, answering the question of the
technical paper and I will critically rate my paper, which will serve as the conclusion.

2. Facts on TikTok

TikTok is one of the biggest entertainment applications on the market. Since its release in
2016, it has surpassed Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, with 4.7 billion downloads
worldwide as of 2023. By 2021, TikTok celebrated 1 billion active users, among which are
teenagers and adults. In addition, children and teenagers are using the app for an average
of two hours a day, which proves its popularity among younger generations (Shepherd).
The algorithm in TikTok is described by TikTok as „A stream of videos curated to your
interests, making it easy to find content and creators you love [...] powered by a
recommendation system that delivers content to each user that is likely to be of interest
to that particular user.” This so-called recommendation system is influenced by the
accounts you follow, videos that you have liked or commented on, as well as the video
completion rate (Newberry), which is influenced by the length of certain videos that you
watch on TikTok (Arlia).

Just like in many entertainment applications, TikTok also uses an automated moderation
system to keep users safe from seeing videos that do not correspond to the TikTok
Community Guidelines. This system reviews videos before distribution to the public by
searching for signals such as hashtags, images, titles, and audio included in the video. If
no such violation can be determined by the system, the video is available to watch on the
platform. However, if a potential violation of the guidelines gets determined by the
system, it sends the video to the TikTok safety team, who will manually review it and
decide whether it is a violation of the guidelines or not. In addition, it is possible to
remove the video from TikTok automatically if the video has a high chance of violating the
rules in the initial review by the automated system (TikTok Team).

3. What is propaganda?

According to the Funk and Wagnalls Dictionary, "Effort directed systematically toward the
gaining of public support for an opinion or a course of action" is one of the meanings of
the word propaganda. In simpler terms, propaganda is what you call a scheme created to
brainwash people into believing in a certain cause or a set of values. Although
propaganda is often used as a negative term, its initial meaning does not have any bad or
good connotations. This is because propaganda is only bad if the cause is bad, and it is
only good when the cause is good (Bernays 20-21). For example, it would be good to use
propaganda to help each other, while propaganda used to promote or call for terror
would be bad.

Propaganda has a rich history that can be traced back to ancient Greece and was used by
influential figures like Alexander the Great and the Roman Empire. The printing press,
embraced by Martin Luther, enabled wide distribution of propaganda. With each new
communication medium, from the American and French revolutions onwards,
propagandists adapted. By the late 19th century, advancements in mass media
significantly boosted propaganda's effectiveness (Jowett and O'Donnell 51-96).

It is a fact that propaganda can be encountered in many different forms, such as visuals,
graphics, and audio. In our case, propaganda is mostly made via videos, songs, books, and
social media posts. Furthermore, propaganda is present in our daily life and can be found
everywhere. An example of this is given by Bernays in his book Propaganda, where he
writes that a person may buy a suit at a tailor with the intent of buying it according to his
tastes, while what he likes is influenced by the latest fashion and trends (Bernays 26-27,
35-36).

4. What is terrorism?

In the Oxford Dictionary, terrorism is defined as a calculated act or threat of violence to

pursue political, religious, or ideological goals by intimidating governments or societies.
Following this, terrorism can be divided into two groups: old terrorism and new terrorism.
Old terrorism is terrorism that is only targeted at certain groups of people, while new
terrorism chooses its victims indiscriminately to cause as many casualties as possible.
Unlike old terrorism, which was used to demand a certain change or addition in political
matters, new terrorism aims at the destruction of society and the elimination of a portion
of the population and is driven by religious means, while old terrorism was predominantly
secular (Laqueur 4, 8). This can be defined further by including the three sub-groups:
classical, modern, and postmodern terrorism. Classical terrorism is aimed at a specific
target; an example of this would be John F. Kennedy's Assassination. Modern terrorism is
described as terror, which has the sole purpose of inflicting a high number of casualties,
and postmodern terrorism is the act of terrorism where the objective is to demolish the
source of a conflict, which is the existence of the enemy itself, with the help of weapons
of mass destruction, such as chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons (Matusitz 11). It
has been proven that terrorism is the cause behind many lasting mental illnesses,
including PTSD, schizophrenia, and anxiety, as well as other traumatic disorders. Such
attacks also cause fear, stress, and insecurity in the social structure of a country, which
can lead to various social catastrophes (Nilsen, Wentzel-Larsen, and Stene). Other
damages can be felt through the economic destruction as an aftermath of terrorism. The
economy can be destroyed via the direct destruction of structures, such as churches,
cafes, transportation systems, and economic resources, but it is also being destroyed by
the side effects of terrorism, like the uncertainty in the markets, which delays the overall
economic growth of a country (Ross).

5. How often can you find terror propaganda on TikTok?

To answer the main question of the paper, we first need to answer the following
question: How often can one find terror propaganda on TikTok?

Firstly, due to the vast number of videos that are being uploaded to TikTok daily, one can
assume that videos, which include terror propaganda, can be found on TikTok. To put this
in perspective, in the year 2021, an average of 23.5 million videos were uploaded to
TikTok daily, which accumulates to a million videos an hour (Ch).

One may argue that the automated moderation system on TikTok, which I have described
and explained in the second part of the technical paper, can help identify such videos and
delete them before they are uploaded resulting into a smaller chance of encountering
such videos. This is far from the truth. The automated moderation system on TikTok is not
always precise, this is proven by the mass amount of sexual content on TikTok, which
goes against the community guidelines of TikTok (Petrovic and Savic).

Besides that, as I have explained earlier in the paper, propaganda can be achieved via
various means, which can be used to easily bypass the automated system. For example, it
is evident, that the moderation system can recognize terror propaganda through the
audio and the imagery of a video, but one can simply manipulate the audio by pitching it
down an octave and the imagery by effects or filters, making it harder for the moderation
system to catch hold of the guideline violations. Likewise, it is possible to upload images
solely consisting of text onto TikTok and that will almost completely erase the possibility
of being flagged by the automated moderation system.
Moving on, the system can also detect a violation of the guidelines by searching for
signals in the form of titles and hashtags. It is displeasing how easy it is to bypass this,
because one can just use abbreviations or change characters in the title or the hashtags of
the video into similar characters.

To present how easy it is, I have thought of ways to abbreviate or change hashtags
promoting terror and terror propaganda from the top of my head, but I have also
included common abbreviations/bypasses:

Term Abbreviated/Changed term

ISIS 1515
Hamas Khamas/Humus
Hezbollah Hezbo
Al Qaeda AQAP
Table 1: Abbreviated/ Changed terms

Another bypass can be achieved by using specific terms or codes, that only users, who are
keen on such topics (e.g. terror groups) would know:

Term Specific Term/Code

ISIS Al Hayat Media Center1/Daesh2/Baqiya3/Dawlati
Baqiya4
Hamas “Red triangle emoji”5
Al Qaeda Tora Bora6
Terms that work for most groups “Name of the group” + Nasheed7
Table 2: Special Terms/ Codes

We have already gone through the TikTok algorithm and what influences it in the second
part of the technical paper. Now we will use this information to get closer to an answer.

1
Al Hayat Media Center: The name of a media wing of the Islamic State
2
Daesh: A synonym for ISIS and ISIL, often used to disrespect the terror organization
3
Baqiya: The arabic word for “remaining”, which was also used in a chant by ISIS declaring “Dawlati Baqiya”
or in english “Our state will remain”
4
ibid.

5
Red triangle emoji: Refers to various propaganda videos made by Hamas, where enemy soldiers are
depicted with a red triangle above their heads
6
Tora Bora: A battle between the American armed forces and Al-Qaeda near the Tora Bora cave complex
7
Nasheed: Islamic chants/songs
As explained before, the TikTok algorithm is influenced by the accounts you follow, videos
that you have liked or commented on, as well as the video completion rate. This means
that users that stumble upon such videos may get recommended more terror
propaganda, due to the possibility, that some users may watch the whole propaganda
video out of interest or shock, therefore increasing the video completion rate. We also
need to note down, that users can comment on such videos with the intent of typing out
their distress upon watching the video, unfortunately, this will only make the algorithm
recommend similar videos. These mistakes in the recommendation system can cause the
users to get manipulated into believing in a terroristic cause, or even worse fighting for
such a cause. Another problem is, if a user interacts with such a video, then it is likely,
that more users will get recommended the same video on their TikTok For You Page, since
it will gain in views and overall popularity through comments and the video completion
rate.

5.1. Statistics

In order to further analyze this topic, I have interviewed 100 teenagers and young adults,
that use TikTok regularly, about the question, How often do you encounter propaganda on
TikTok?, from which I have created a chart (see Chart 1).

Chart 1: How often do you encounter terror propaganda on TikTok?

Alongside this, I made a self-experiment, in which I have created a new account, where I
have followed typical Islamic content creators and I have interacted with several Islamic
videos on the app, to ensure, that I would replicate the average For You Page of a Muslim
teenager. After a successful replica of the For You Page, I have scrolled through 100
videos, and I noted down what type of videos I have encountered during the experiment.
I used these notes to create a graph (see Graph 1). In the graph I have defined all usual
videos under the term NORMAL and the rest of the definitions in the graph are all terror
propaganda in different forms, therefore being defined accordingly.

Graph 1: Self-experiment: How often can you find terror propaganda on TikTok?

5.2. Evaluation of the statistics

Chart 1: The pie chart shows how often interviewees encounter terror propaganda on
TikTok with one percentage in the chart being equal to one interviewee. It is important to
mention that only 16% of the people interviewed have never encountered terror
propaganda. This is a significant issue, because this would mean 84% of the people,
which, in our case, accumulates to 84 out of 100 teenagers, who extensively use TikTok,
are seeing terror propaganda at least once on a semi-monthly basis. Moving on to the
other percentages, we can see that 7 out of 100 people encounter terror propaganda
daily and 12 out of 100 weekly. With this information we can conclude that many
teenagers encounter terror propaganda on TikTok, which is effective for the terrorist
groups, as this prooves, that they can manipulate the algorithm, as well as the
moderation system for their benefit.

Graph 1: The bar graph How often can you find terror propaganda (self-experiment)
shows the type of the video in dependence of the number of videos per 100 scrolls. It
may seem relieving to see, that the substantial majority of the videos, that were
recommended to the replica of an average Islamic For You Page, are normal, but, in fact,
it is worrying to see, that TikTok recommends terror propaganda at a rate of 14 videos
per 100 scrolls to a usual account. Furthermore, as we can see in the type of the videos,
that are being recommended, that they are videos, which catch the interest of teenagers
and young adults, by using terror nasheeds, which may appeal to teens and make them
listen to such nasheeds. Adding onto this, some videos call for terror and other videos
justify it. Through this combination, teens can get indoctrinated into believing that terror
is the right thing to do. Overall, the graph shows us, that TikTok is a effective platform for
terrorist groups to distribute terror propaganda on, because there are little to no anti-
terror videos and the terror propaganda videos appeal to teenagers, by manipulating
them into thinking that the terroristic ideologies of such groups are cool and right, with
the use of nasheeds and manipulative videos.

6. Conclusion

It is time for us to conclude our findings and sum them up to finally answer the question
of this paper.

In this paper we have learned about some facts regarding TikTok, definitions and detailed
explanations of the words propaganda and terrorism, as well as statistics and facts to find
out how often one can encounter terror propaganda on TikTok.

Terror propaganda on TikTok plays different roles when looking from different
perspectives. In the perspective of a terrorist group, TikTok is a great medium to spread
their cause and indoctrinate people with their ideology, so terror propaganda on TikTok
plays a big role for them in expanding their thoughts and beliefs by winning the heart of
the users. For TikTok, however, terror propaganda is a great concern, since it endangers
users and violates the guidelines. Here terror propaganda is a problem and an obstacle.
As for youth, terror propaganda can play a big role, since, on TikTok, it can function as a
shock factor or a way of developing new thoughts and positions, which will influence
them and the lifes they live. If we look at society, terror propaganda on TikTok damages
the democratic steadfastness of a western country, by teaching the youth non-
democratic ideas. Whether this is good or bad is irrelevant, since it all depends on the
person that is being asked.

I believe that the radicalization of the youth, through such propaganda on TikTok, will
only grow in the next years, since, as we have determined, there are little to no anti-
terror videos on the platform and the overall moderation system of TikTok is easy to
bypass. Personally, I do not think that this issue will resolve itself, unless TikTok starts
tightening their rules and improving their security system.

We as a society seeking peace, that condemns such ideologies, should take several
approaches to make sure that the online presence of terror propaganda will sink, as it is a
serious threat, that should not be taken lightly. We need to control what gets uploaded
onto social media strictly. We need to start teaching about the dangers of social media
earlier. We need to educate parents on this topic, and we need to make sure that the
voice of the victims of terror propaganda get heard. Only then will we be able to fight the
presence of such groups and protect our children.

Lastly, after having worked on this paper for a long time, it is time for me to look back on
it all critically, so that I can improve and learn to write better papers. In this technical
paper I have reached the goal of answering the main question. It is obvious that there is
room for improvement in this paper, for example, in the second part of this paper, I could
have provided more facts on TikTok. An interesting addition to this paper could have been
a part, in which I analyze certain terror propaganda videos, that i have encountered
during the self-experiment, alongside this I could have analyzed the lyrics of some terror
nasheeds. Finally, it could have been interesting to see how terror groups justify their
actions and I could maybe debunk their justifications. Unfortunately, I did not have
enough time or pages to include everything, that I had in mind, so I had to limit myself to
the most important aspects, but nevertheless it is an informative and complete paper,
with enough content to provoke thought and enlighten readers.

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Versicherung

Ich versichere, dass ich die Arbeit selbstständig verfasst, keine anderen Quellen oder
Hilfsmittel als die angegebenen benutzt und die Stellen der Arbeit, die anderen Werken
dem Wortlaut oder Sinn nach entnommen sind, in jedem einzelnen Fall unter Angabe der
Quelle als Entlehnung kenntlich gemacht habe. Das Gleiche gilt auch für beigegebene
Zeichnungen, Kartenskizzen und Darstellungen.

Ahlen, 13.Februar 2024, Mert Ertas