TikTok permanently bans Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda

Amid growing concerns over the silencing of pro-Palestinian voices, Emmy Award-winning Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda’s TikTok account has been permanently banned by the social media platform.

Owda announced the ban in a video posted on Instagram and X on Wednesday, January 28. “TikTok deleted my account. I had 1.4 million followers there, and I have been building that platform for four years,” she said in the video, filmed from Gaza.

The young Palestinian lifestyle influencer-turned-journalist is widely known for her daily videos from Gaza, often beginning with the line, “It’s Bisan from Gaza, and I’m still alive.”

“I expected that it would be restricted, like every time, not banned forever. Posts that some may find uncomfortable are unavailable,” she said, who had over 1.4 million users and amassed more than 19.1 million likes over her four-year journey with the platform.

She had recently posted Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and TikTok’s chief executive officer (CEO) Adam Presser’s remarks on how social media, especially TikTok, was allegedly used as a weapon for spreading anti-zionist atmosphere.

Netanyahu had recently met pro-Israeli influencers during his visit to the United States, where he hoped to “purchase” TikTok.

“The most important purchase that is going on right now is … TikTok,” he had said.

“TikTok, number one, number one, and I hope it goes through, because it can be consequential,” he said.

CEO Adam Presser spoke about bringing changes to TikTok’s moderation policies, including treating “the use of the term Zionist as a proxy for a protected attribute” as hate speech.

“There’s no finish line to moderating hate speech, identifying hateful trends, trying to keep the platform safe,” he had said.

Almost a year ago, the US issued an apparent threat to its Chinese owner, ByteDance, stating that if it failed to sell its US operations to American investors, it would be banned. The key point of contention has been the app’s powerful recommendation algorithm, which determines what content users see.

On January 22, TikTok finalised its deal to form a new American entity, with the official establishment of the TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC. This milestone ended years of uncertainty and secured the app’s continued operation in the United States, following approval from both US and Chinese authorities.