According to Sharel Omar, CEO of Affogata, a Tel Aviv-based company that helps brands monitor data about themselves and rivals on social media, the war against Israel is being waged on the video-sharing social media network TikTok with greater ferocity than on other social media sites.

"What we're seeing now is really different from what we've seen in the past on social media," Omar said. "TikTok is extremely popular among young people, and it is being used as a major distribution platform for highly provocative videos of the Gaza attacks. Hashtags like #freegaza and #freepalestine are being posted hundreds, if not thousands, of times more than hashtags linked to Israel or the Israeli Defense Forces. People who share the Gaza story are able to meet a large number of people organically."

Images of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on fire during clashes between demonstrators and Israeli police last Monday, one of the incidents that sparked the latest round of violence, elicited a strong response from Muslims around the world, according to Omar. Even though the blaze in a tree on the Mount was allegedly triggered by a flare hurled by Muslim demonstrators at the police, the sight of a raging blaze in one of Islam's holiest sites was profoundly provocative for many.

TikTok was first introduced in China in 2016, and its popularity has exploded since then, with more than two billion downloads worldwide. The overwhelming majority of its users are under the age of 30, and the app has the highest market penetration in Muslim countries such as Turkey, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.

These factors, according to Omar, are part of what makes propaganda on TikTok so much more volatile than on Facebook or WhatsApp groups. "Facebook users tend to be older than TikTok users, and there is a stronger propensity for people to have conversations and post balanced messages about calming the situation and restoring peace there." Many local community organizations use WhatsApp to communicate with one another about what is going on and what needs to be done. However, TikTok's design appears to build a more competitive atmosphere in which users can post videos and receive a lot of likes and shares without communicating with their followers or reacting to their feedback. In that way, it's similar to Twitter, but it's just for videos and not for text."

"Security is our top priority, and we do not accept abuse, hate speech, or hateful acts," a TikTok representative in Israel said in response to these comments. We've already taken steps to delete material that violates our Community Guidelines, and we'll continue to do so as needed, including partnering with law enforcement when we receive a legitimate request."

Meanwhile, celebrities and influencers on Instagram and other platforms are commenting on Israel's Gaza campaign, but not discussing the issues, according to Omar. "A number of celebrities are expressing their views, but then blocking comments on their blogs." This is a brand-new phenomenon. They recognize their ability to impact, but most don't want to be a crusader for a cause, so they'll say things like #freegaza and then block people from responding, as if this absolves them of responsibility for defending their claims. Many influencers see this as part of their self-promotion policy because it is much easier to get likes and shares by siding with Hamas."

Instagram and other social media sites are also being used to attack public figures in Israel. Police arrested a suspect on Tuesday after she assaulted N12 reporter Dana Weiss on Instagram. Multiple journalists have been assaulted in recent days, and four N12 journalists - Yonit Levi, Rina Mazliah, Guy Peleg, and Weiss - have been assigned private security information after receiving an unprecedented increase in online threats to commit acts of violence against them, including specific death threats.

"We don't want anyone to feel unsafe or abused on our apps," a representative from Facebook, which owns Instagram, said in response to the attacks. While we allow public figures, such as journalists, to be criticized, we do not allow people to threaten or bully them, and we delete such material as soon as we become aware of it. We also take down material that divulges personal information, and we've taken down some articles that revealed journalists' private phone numbers. Anyone who sees inappropriate content on our apps is encouraged to report it so that we can take steps to keep our community safe.”

Thousands of derogatory comments are posted by users and automated bots designed to produce hateful speech, according to Omar, and several Israeli brands are bearing the brunt of anti-Israel sentiment on social media. Even the social media reaction to Israel's Eurovision representative, Eden Alene, was negative ahead of her semifinal appearance on Tuesday night.

"There is usually a strong connection between what people think about a song online and how they vote." However, we're seeing a one-of-a-kind mismatch in this situation, with people giving the song high ratings but criticizing it on social media."

Finally, the war on social media, according to Omar, is very real, and it has a significant and long-term effect on how the conflict is viewed. "It was once said that the winners write history. The narrative that social media presents to the world is now writing history."