ISIS using viral teen app Tiktok to spread propaganda, reports say

Islamic State militants have started using TikTok, the viral video app popular with teenagers, to spread disturbing propaganda, including clips of corpses being carried through streets, reports say.

The videos, which were identified by Storyful and first reported by The Wall Street Journal, were said to have been posted by around two dozen accounts.

They included footage of ISIS fighters with guns, with some clips set against anthems used by the group and others overlaid with TikTok filters.

TikTok said it had removed around 10 accounts from the app, saying “content promoting terrorist organisations have absolutely no place on TikTok”.

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“We permanently ban any such accounts and associated devices as soon as identified, and we continuously develop ever-stronger controls to proactively detect suspicious activity,” a spokesman for the company said.

News of the footage is, however, likely to prompt concern, given the young age of many of its users. TikTok, which lets users send short videos set to music to their followers, has become hugely popular with teenagers, and currently has more than four million users in the UK.

Storyful said the amount of content posted on TikTok, which relies upon its users “engaging with a never-ending stream” of footage, made it difficult for the app to police.

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