New York CNN –
Schools in Israel, Britain and the US are advising parents to delete their children’s social media apps over fears that Hamas militants are sending or distributing disturbing videos of hostages captured in recent days.
The parents’ association at a school in Tel Aviv said it expects videos of hostages “begging for their lives” to appear on social media. In a message to parents shared with CNN by a mother of children at a Tel Aviv high school, the association called on parents to remove apps like TikTok from their children’s phones.
“We cannot allow our children to watch something like this. “It is also difficult, even impossible, to combine all of this content on social media,” said the parents’ council. “Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”
Hamas has warned that it will publicize hostage killings on social media if Israel attacks people in Gaza without warning.
Additionally, there are concerns that terrorists are exploiting social media algorithms to target such videos to followers of Jewish or Israeli influencers, waging psychological warfare against Israelis, Jews and their supporters worldwide.
During Saturday’s attack, armed Hamas fighters poured into Israel across the heavily fortified border and took up to 150 hostages, including Israeli army officers, back into Gaza. According to the Israeli Defense Forces, at least 1,200 people were killed and thousands more injured in the surprise attacks.
Since Israel began airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave on Saturday, at least 1,055 people have been killed in Gaza, including hundreds of children, women and entire families, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. As of Wednesday, another 5,184 had been injured, it said.
As the war continues, some Jewish schools in the U.S. are also asking parents not to share any related videos or photos that may surface, and to prevent children – and themselves – from viewing them. Schools are also advising community members to delete their social media apps during this time.
“Along with other Jewish day schools, we are warning parents to disable social media apps like Instagram, X and Tiktok on their children’s phones,” the head of a New Jersey school wrote in an email. “Graphic and often misleading information flows freely and increases our students’ fears. …Parents should discuss the dangers of these platforms and ask their children daily what they see, even after they have deleted the most unfiltered apps from their phones.”
Another school in the United Kingdom said it asked its students to delete their social media apps during a safety meeting.
TikTok, Instagram and
But X said It has seen an increase in daily active users on its platform in the conflict zone, and its escalation teams have “addressed tens of thousands of posts for sharing graphic media, violent speech and hateful behavior.” A request for further comment or the definition of “redirected” was not responded to.
“As part of all our efforts, we continue to proactively monitor anti-Semitic speech,” said X’s security team. “We have also taken action to remove several hundred accounts that attempt to manipulate trending topics.”
The company added that it remains “very focused” on enforcing the site’s rules and reminded users that they can limit sensitive media they may encounter by selecting “Content, that you see”.
Nevertheless, misinformation remains widespread on social media platforms, including X.
A post viewed more than 500,000 times with the hashtag #PalestineUnderAttack claimed to show a plane being shot down. However, the clip was from the video game Arma 3, as was later noted in a “community note” attached to the post.
Another video purporting to show Israeli generals after they were captured by Hamas militants had been viewed more than 1.7 million times as of Monday. However, the video instead shows the detention of separatists in Azerbaijan.
On Tuesday, the European Union warned Elon Musk of “punishments” for disinformation spread on X during the war between Israel and Hamas.
The EU also informed Meta CEO Zuckerberg on Wednesday about a surge in disinformation on his platforms – which include Facebook – and asked the company to respond within 24 hours on how it plans to combat the problem.
In an Instagram Story on Tuesday, Zuckerberg called the attack “purely evil” and said his focus remains “on the safety of our employees and their families in Israel and the region.”