Emmy-winning Owda factors to adjustments in TikTok’s US possession, remarks from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to clarify ban.
Award-winning Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda has mentioned she has been completely banned from TikTok, days after the social media platform was acquired by new investors in america.
Owda, an Emmy Award-winning journalist and contributor to Al Jazeera’s AJ+ from Gaza, shared a video on her Instagram and X accounts on Wednesday, telling her followers that her TikTok account had been banned.
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“TikTok deleted my account. I had 1.4 million followers there, and I’ve been constructing that platform for 4 years,” Owda mentioned within the video filmed from Gaza.
“I anticipated that it is going to be restricted, like each time, not banned perpetually,” she added.
Al Jazeera despatched a question to TikTok inquiring about Owda’s account and is ready for a reply.
Hours after Owda shared her video, an account that appeared to have the identical username was nonetheless seen on TikTok with a message that mentioned: “Posts that some might discover uncomfortable are unavailable.”
The final put up seen on that account was from September 20, 2025, practically three weeks earlier than a ceasefire was reached in Israel’s genocidal conflict on the Gaza Strip.
In her video on Wednesday, Owda pointed to latest remarks from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in addition to Adam Presser, the brand new CEO of TikTok’s US arm, as a doable rationalization for the ban.
Netanyahu met with pro-Israel influencers in New York in September final 12 months, telling them that he hoped the “purchase” of TikTok “goes by way of”.
“Now we have to combat with the weapons that apply to the battlefield through which we have interaction, and an important ones are social media,” Netanyahu, who’s a conflict crimes suspect, mentioned on the time.
“An important buy that is occurring proper now could be … TikTok,” Netanyahu added. “TikTok, primary, primary, and I hope it goes by way of, as a result of it may be consequential,” he mentioned.
TikTok announced last week {that a} deal to determine a separate model of the platform within the US had been accomplished, with the brand new entity managed by funding corporations, lots of that are American firms, together with a number of linked to US President Donald Trump.
Owda additionally shared an undated video of Adam Presser, the brand new CEO of TikTok’s US arm.
Within the video, Presser speaks about adjustments made at TikTok, the place he beforehand labored as head of operations within the US, saying that “the usage of the time period Zionist as a proxy for a protected attribute” had been designated “as hate speech”.
“There’s no end line to moderating hate speech, figuring out hateful traits, attempting to maintain the platform secure,” Presser mentioned.
Zionism is a nationalist ideology that emerged within the late 1800s in Europe, calling for the creation of a Jewish state.
Owda’s social media presence grew from posting every day movies through which she greeted her viewers, saying, “It’s Bisan From Gaza – and I’m nonetheless alive.”
She made a documentary of the identical title with Al Jazeera’s AJ+, which was awarded an Emmy within the Excellent Exhausting Information Function Story class in 2024.
Her video on Wednesday got here as Israel’s high court docket again postponed making a choice on whether or not international journalists must be allowed to enter and report on Gaza independently of the Israeli army.
Regardless of the continued ceasefire, an Israeli assault final week killed three Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
In accordance with the Committee to Defend Journalists, at the very least 207 Palestinian journalists and media staff have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, with the “overwhelming majority” killed by Israeli forces.
