TikTok Israel executive: "MKs tell me: 'We were blocked due to an agenda.' Most of the time the problem is with them"
Lior Winterov, TikTok Israel's Director of Public Policy, is interviewed on ynet's podcast "120 Ve'ahat" and addresses claims by right-wing politicians about being blocked due to an agenda. According to him, most cases involve technical issues like sound. He explains the company's mechanisms to prevent paid political campaigns, the fight against fake news and disinformation, and the removal of about 15,000 election-related videos in the first quarter of 2026.
Lior Winterov, TikTok Israel's Director of Public Policy, is interviewed on ynet's podcast "120 Ve'ahat" and addresses claims by right-wing politicians who say they were blocked due to a political agenda. According to him, he receives calls from MKs who claim they were blocked, but most of the time the problem is technical, such as poor sound in a video. Winterov explains that TikTok does not allow paid political campaigns, but parties and MKs can post organic content. He discusses challenges during elections and notes that a dedicated command center was established, including engineers and content experts who speak Hebrew, Arabic, English, and Russian. He says that in the first quarter of 2026, about 15-16 thousand election-related videos were removed in Israel due to misinformation, and 98% of them were taken down before receiving a single view. Winterov, formerly a Knesset spokesperson and Foreign Ministry employee, also talks about dealing with foreign influence from Iran and Russia, and the platform's importance in reaching Generation Z and millennials, especially given the addition of about 670,000 new eligible voters since 2022.