Emmy-winning Owda factors to modifications in TikTok’s US possession, remarks from Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to clarify ban.
Award-winning Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda has stated she has been completely banned from TikTok, days after the social media platform was acquired by new investors in the US.
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 stated within the video filmed from Gaza.
“I anticipated that will probably 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 stated: “Posts that some could 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 struggle 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 attainable clarification for the ban.
Netanyahu met with pro-Israel influencers in New York in September final yr, telling them that he hoped the “purchase” of TikTok “goes by means of”.
“We’ve got to struggle with the weapons that apply to the battlefield by which we interact, and crucial ones are social media,” Netanyahu, who’s a struggle crimes suspect, stated on the time.
“Crucial buy that is occurring proper now’s … TikTok,” Netanyahu added. “TikTok, primary, primary, and I hope it goes by means of, as a result of it may be consequential,” he stated.
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 corporations, 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 modifications made at TikTok, the place he beforehand labored as head of operations within the US, saying that “using 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 tendencies, attempting to maintain the platform secure,” Presser stated.
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 each day movies by which she greeted her viewers, saying, “It’s Bisan From Gaza – and I’m nonetheless alive.”
She made a documentary of the identical identify 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 call on whether or not overseas journalists ought to be allowed to enter and report on Gaza independently of the Israeli navy.
Regardless of the continued ceasefire, an Israeli assault final week killed three Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
In accordance with the Committee to Shield Journalists, no less than 207 Palestinian journalists and media staff have been killed in Gaza since October 2023, with the “overwhelming majority” killed by Israeli forces.
