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TikTok deal fuels rise of UpScrolled, whose founder conceived it as a haven for Palestinian activism
(JTA) — Spooked by the deal finalized last week to sell part of TikTok to a U.S. investor group, some users have sought alternatives to the wildly popular social media platform.
Many are turning to UpScrolled, an app founded last year by a Palestinian tech entrepreneur who has promoted it as an alternative to mainstream social media outlets that he claims have silenced pro-Palestinian voices.
UpScrolled has surged to become the most-downloaded social media platform in Apple’s app store — and it has also been flooded with antisemitic and anti-Israel content, including expressions of gratitude that it permits such material.
“Thanks for this app. Let’s hope it continues to grow. It is terrifying how much control zionists have over all of our media. We are rapidly losing our freedoms,” wrote one user in the comments of UpScrolled’s post announcing it had reached 1 million users.
The app’s creator, Issam Hijazi, was born in Jordan and lives in Australia. He says 60 members of his family died in the Gaza war, which he said had changed his perspective on his work nearly two decades into his tech career.
“Since the genocide happened, and is still happening, it changed everything in me: my perspective to life, to work, to what I want to look for, and I felt I was complicit by working for these big techs,” Hijazi said in September at ArabCon, a conference held by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Dearborn, Michigan.
Echoing allegations made by some human rights NGOs and activists, Hijazi said he believed “shadow-banning,” or suppressing the visibility of accounts, was common for pro-Palestinian social media users on multiple platforms.
“I was one of those users. I was posting about what’s happening in the genocide,” he said. “I’ve got friends all over Europe, the U.S., and everywhere [and I was] asking them, do you see this content? They say, what content?”
Social media independence, Hijazi said, was essential for the Palestinian cause. “It’s great to go out in the street and protest; it’s great to gather and talk and share and all that,” he said. “But if we don’t become independent, digitally, speaking with platforms, with products, and then help one another to grow these platforms, we will not be able to get far.”
That message is resonating now that an investor group led by Larry Ellison, a prominent pro-Israel entrepreneur, has reached a deal to purchase the U.S. operations of TikTok. The deal was forced under U.S. law and supported by major Jewish organizations including Jewish Federations of North America, which cited antisemitism on the platform as a reason that change was needed.
An increasing number of users are downloading UpScrolled, which said earlier this month that it had about 90,000 regular users. On Thursday morning, Hijazi announced the platform had reached one million users.
On Wednesday, UpScrolled ranked second among overall AppStore downloads on Apple devices behind ChatGPT. Among social networking apps, it ranked first.
“Now that Tiktok has fallen officially under control of Zionist billionaire and MAGA oligarch Larry Ellison, who bought this app on behalf of Israel to censor pro Palestinian speech and speech criticizing the US and Israeli regimes. I need you guys to switch apps,” said the controversial pro-Palestinian TikTok influencer Guy Christensen in a post on TikTok. “At least download this app called UpScrolled, it’s a new social media platform, no censorship, no ownership by billionaires who put their interests and biases onto you to control you.”
Within minutes of downloading UpScrolled, a social media platform that has rocketed to popularity this week following a deal to sell part of TikTok to a group of U.S. investors, users are likely to see antisemitic and anti-Israel content.
“This is a safe space to openly say, I stand with Khamenei, Hezbollah, Houthis, & Hamas #ResistanceIsNotTerrorism,” read one post featured Wednesday on the app’s “discover” page, which allows users to find new accounts to follow.
“Happy WP Wednesday! All kikes please face the wall. #fuckthejews,” wrote another.
Elsewhere, users promoted Holocaust denial and alleged that Israel carried out the 9/11 terror attacks.
One user with a photo of Hitler as their profile picture responded to the announcement that UpScrolled had reached 1 million users by saying, “Thank you for allowing free speech without censorship. F—k Tiktok and Twitter.”
Even as UpScrolled markets itself as “creating an environment that is authentic, unfiltered, and equitable for all,” it also claims that it is not a “free-for-all.”
“UpScrolled does not tolerate hate speech, propaganda, or bad-faith behaviour, but it also refuses to silence voices quietly or without explanation,” reads a blog entry on the UpScrolled website. “It is not a free-for-all; it is a space built on dignity, accountability, and respect.”
How content is moderated on social media has been a longstanding concern for Jewish watchdogs on alert for antisemitism online. This week, the group CyberWell released its annual State of Online Antisemitism report which found that roughly half of antisemitic content was removed across the platforms it analyzed. The platform with the lowest rate of removal was X, whose owner Elon Musk has pledged a hands-off approach to moderation; the highest was on TikTok, which took down nearly 90% of antisemitic posts.
UpScrolled’s website says the platform prohibits certain material, including “violence,” defined as “threats, glorification of harm, or support for terrorist/violent groups,” and “harassment and hate,” which included “bullying, targeted abuse, or attacks based on race, religion, gender, sexuality, disability, or similar traits.”
The platform also has an in-app reporting button to flag posts, profiles, or messages, according to UpScrolled’s rules and policies page.
In response to a request from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency for information on how the platform monitors hate speech, UpScrolled spokesperson Gabriella Bord said its moderators had been unable to keep up with the influx of content this week.
“Our content moderation hasn’t been able to keep up with the massive rise of users this week,” wrote Bord in a statement. “We’re working with digital rights experts to grow our Trust & Safety team and are beefing up our content moderation to prevent this. We apologise to all impacted users, thank you for being part of Upscrolled.”
For some on the site now — and for Hijazi — the relative paucity of moderation could be a boon, not a bug.
“We are no longer depending on unethical social media platforms,” Hijazi wrote in a November post on Instagram. “UpScrolled is a platform where your activist content will not be censored. No matter if you speak about Palestine, Sudan, climate, inclusivity or any other topic.”
Or as a new user said in response to the latest post, about the surge in downloads, “In this app, I feel right at home. I can write and speak freely and comfortable without using symbols, wordplay, or circumvention tools to bypass Zionist algorithms.”
The post TikTok deal fuels rise of UpScrolled, whose founder conceived it as a haven for Palestinian activism appeared first on The Forward.
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Jewish Democrats back Michigan AG Dana Nessel’s decision to skip state party convention
(JTA) — Local and national Jewish Democrats say they are sympathetic after Michigan’s Jewish attorney general, Dana Nessel, said she would skip the state Democratic Party’s nominating convention over concerns about antisemitism and harassment.
“I don’t blame AG Nessel for not wanting to go and basically put herself in situations that feel untenable in this moment of time and don’t add any value politically, personally,” Jessica “Decky” Alexander, the Michigan Jewish Democratic caucus chair, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Friday.
Alexander’s comment came a day after Nessel announced during a televised antisemitism roundtable that she would be skipping the convention next month, where party leaders will finalize the state’s Democratic candidate for Senate following a divisive primary that has focused in part on Israel and antisemitism.
“I don’t feel safe going. I feel like my presence isn’t going to be welcome. I don’t want to get chased around. I don’t want to get harassed. I don’t want to get yelled and screamed at. I don’t want to get booed off the stage, irrespective of what I’m saying,” Nessel said during the roundtable. “And I believe that if I go, that is what will happen because it’s been happening to me.”
She said she had filed a formal complaint within the party about a party official who had called her a neo-Nazi because of her beliefs. “Why is this person more accepted in our party than me?” she asked without naming the official. Her office responded to a request for comment by referring to the recorded livestream of the antisemitism roundtable.
Nessel’s declaration comes in the final days of the primary between Rep. Haley Stevens, a pro-Israel stalwart, and Abdul El-Sayed, a democratic socialist who is deeply critical of Israel. El-Sayed is surging in polls despite a reported $30 million spent against him by AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby, and its supporters, whom he has made a target of criticism from the campaign trail.
Nessel’s comments also follow turmoil at the Michigan Democratic Party’s endorsement convention in April, where Stevens was booed by attendees. A third primary candidate who later dropped out of the race, state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, said a convention attendee had targeted her Jewish husband with an antisemitic slur.
The incident has fueled alarm among Jewish Democrats, according to Halie Soifer, CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America.
“She’s not alone,” Soifer told JTA about Nessel on Friday. “We’ve heard from other Jewish Democrats who attended the Democratic Party convention earlier this year in Michigan, and there was a sense of discomfort amid what felt like a pro-Palestinian protest [that] may have even blurred the line for some into antisemitic sentiment — and it’s really concerning.”
Nessel has raised the alarm about antisemitism within the party for years, alleging in 2024 that Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a prominent pro-Palestinian voice, had been antisemitic when criticizing charges Nessel filed against pro-Palestinian protesters at the University of Michigan.
For her part, Alexander said she would be participating in the nominating convention and said she believed the chair of the state Democratic Party, Curtis Hertel, had been “very accessible and very open to making sure that we, including our Jewish elected officials, feel safe in that space.” But she said she understood why Nessel was staying away.
“It would never even occur to me, but I’m not an elected official,” Alexander said. “It’s a different stake for me than it is for Dana. I understand her completely.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Jewish Democrats back Michigan AG Dana Nessel’s decision to skip state party convention appeared first on The Forward.
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Maine rabbis call for peace, urge politicians to stop calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’
(JTA) — Every congregational rabbi in Maine has signed onto a statement calling for peace and urging the state’s political leaders to stop using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza, following a Democratic primary in which several candidates used the label for the first time.
But the rabbis also indicated that they, too, were unsatisfied with conditions in the Middle East and called on Israeli and Palestinian leaders to work toward a peaceful future.
“We call upon Maine’s leaders, and particularly its political leaders, to reject the irresponsible usage of the term in describing the Israel-Hamas War,” said the statement released on Friday. “We also call upon Israeli and Palestinian leaders to end the cycle of violence and to create a better world for both Palestinian and Israeli children.”
The statement, titled “A Call for Peace and Responsible Rhetoric,” argues that using the term as a “political slogan does not advance peace in the Middle East.” The term “erases essential moral and legal distinctions, diminishes the meaning of genocide, and inflames hatred for the local Jewish community,” the rabbis say.
“Compassion for Palestinians does not require the adoption of hateful and misleading language,” they continue. “Advocating for peace does not require participation in a ‘Holocaust inversion’ against the Jewish community. And political leadership does not require demonizing one community in the service of another.”
The statement comes days after Troy Jackson, a former logger and state Senate president, secured the Maine Democratic U.S. Senate nomination Saturday at the party’s nominating convention to replace Graham Platner, a staunch Israel critic who dropped out of the race earlier this month. Platner faced a sexual assault allegation, which he denies. Jackson now faces Republican incumbent Sen. Susan Collins in November’s general election.
Platner’s romp to the primary victory featured routine use of “genocide” to describe Israel’s actions. And ahead of the convention to replace him, Jackson and several other Democratic hopefuls who later exited the race began using the term “genocide” to describe Israel’s war in Gaza for the first time, a shift that drew scrutiny from some Jewish leaders and voters in the state.
The use of the term has become a “currency for acquiring power and position in Maine’s Democratic party,” Rabbi Rachel Isaacs, the leader of Beth Israel Congregation in Waterville, who also signed the statement, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
“Too many Maine Democrats are cynically willing to trade in that currency at the expense of our safety and dignity,” she said in an emailed statement. “We decided we needed to say something collectively, both about the specious and dangerous nature of the claim, and about how much damage has been done to our families and congregants.”
The statement Friday was spearheaded by the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine and signed by every congregational rabbi in the state, including Rabbi Bill Siemers of the Conservative Congregation Beth Israel in Bangor and Rabbi Erica Asch of the Reform Temple Beth El in Augusta. (Rabbis affiliated with the Chabad movement in Maine did not appear on the signatory list.)
Zach Schwartz, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine, said the federation hoped the “unity displayed here in Maine can inspire Jewish communities across the US to also unite against the extremist rhetoric harming our community and our children.”
Rabbi Josh Stanton, the associate vice president of interfaith and intergroup initiatives for Jewish Federations of North America, also hailed the joint statement.
“Maine’s Jewish clergy are setting an important example with their call to put aside inflammatory rhetoric and look to the common good,” Stanton said in an emailed statement. “At a time of rising polarization and declining civil discourse, the Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine’s efforts to unify the community around this important message are a mark of true leadership.”
Isaacs told JTA that she hoped Jackson would “support, understand, and advocate for all of Maine’s citizens, including the totality of Maine’s diverse Jewish community.”
“Work with us to figure out how to express outrage and legitimate critique of Israel’s government without succumbing to language that you might not know is an ancient antisemitic trope, or dismissing the security needs of Israel’s citizens,” Isaacs said of her message to Jackson. “Please have the courage to forge your own path, and not follow in the footsteps of Graham Platner, a man who should have never been normalized, endorsed, or empowered.”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Maine rabbis call for peace, urge politicians to stop calling Gaza war a ‘genocide’ appeared first on The Forward.
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Boy George cedes role of King Herod in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ production after releasing pro-Israel song
(JTA) — Boy George has withdrawn from his run as King Herod in London’s West End revival of “Jesus Christ Superstar,” days before he was due to take the stage and 24 hours after releasing “We Will Dance Again,” dedicated to the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on the Nova music festival in Israel.
The 80’s pop star was scheduled to appear at London’s Palladium starting Monday as part of the production’s rotating cast playing King Herod, the Judean king who is best known by Jews for his expansion of the Second Temple and to Christians for his efforts to stave off the arrival of a challenger — the story of which is reflected in the rock opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.
Boy George will be replaced by actor Richard Armitage in the London production.
In announcing the cast change, Paul Kelmsley, the singer’s manager, did not directly mention the blowback the former Culture Club frontman was receiving for releasing a pro-Israel song but alluded to it.
“George has never been afraid to stand by his personal convictions, and I have always respected him for that,” he said. ”In this instance, I felt it was right to step aside, allowing the production to remain the focus, while ensuring everyone involved can move forward with mutual respect and goodwill.”
Boy George is defending his decision to release the song, saying he believes artists should be free to express their views even when they are unpopular. In “We Will Dance Again,” the singer rejects claims of genocide against Israel and proclaims, “If you’re ever confused, I stand with the Jews.”
Earlier Friday, Boy George lashed back at the vitriol he was getting online. “What is most shocking is the amount of gay folk attacking me, ” he posted on X. “If you support terrorism you can in the words of Divine ‘Take your toolkit and go f—_ a garage,’” he said, referring to a quote attributed to the taboo-breaking transgender artist.
“When I say ‘they want to kill every last one of us’ I am also talking about us queers, not just the Jewish community,” Boy George said. “When will you wake up?”
This article originally appeared on JTA.org.
The post Boy George cedes role of King Herod in ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ production after releasing pro-Israel song appeared first on The Forward.
