As TikTok falls into Zionist hands, UpScrolled fills the vacuum to give voice to Palestine

By Hassen Lorgat

The genocide in Gaza, raging since October 2023, has been a brutal war against an occupied population, resulting in over 70,000 fatalities. The Lancet and, more recently, the UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories suggest the real toll is far higher.

Francesca Albanese recently asserted that the actual death toll from the Israeli genocidal offensive on Gaza could be as high as 680,000, most of them women and children.

We have all witnessed the unimaginable destruction inflicted upon Gaza’s institutions of learning, healthcare, and worship throughout these more than two years. It has not only been a physical assault but also a war against truth and justice, revealing the true nature of the Israeli regime as a warmonger, as its propaganda – its hasbara – lies in tatters.

Yet, one critical lesson from the global struggle against anti-Palestinian hate and injustice is that oppressors, once defeated, do not simply surrender. They fight back fiercely, while those who advocate for justice often return to their everyday lives, trying to navigate an inherently abnormal world.

Take the case of TikTok, which gained significant recognition for amplifying factual perspectives about Israel and its ruthless military – widely regarded as one of the most immoral armies in the world – and their killings of Palestinian women and children, which has been widely recognized as genocide.

So, how did authorities in the US respond to TikTok? They launched a campaign against the platform, claiming, among other things, that it posed a security risk – fearing that China could access user data or manipulate the algorithm.

US President Donald Trump acknowledged TikTok’s value during his recent electoral campaigns, and through vile threats, propaganda, and legal measures, he sought to seize the platform to serve his political agenda and that of the Israeli regime.

Then, in September 2025, evidence emerged confirming these suspicions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was secretly recorded boasting to a group of influencers at Israel’s Consulate General in New York that TikTok was “the most important purchase going on right now.” He also described X (formerly Twitter) as key “weapons” in Israel’s arsenal.

In this video (click on the link), a lecturer on genocide perpetration tells his students why media ownership is important to get their message through.

A few days ago, TikTok's Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sold its majority share to a US consortium led by Donald Trump ally Larry Ellison, as well as Silver Lake and Emirati investment firm MGX. Collectively, the new partners hold a 50 percent stake, while ByteDance retains a 19.9 percent stake. 

This has not gone unnoticed by pro-Palestine campaigners, who fear that Palestinian voices will be censored as Netanyahu wished. There are growing concerns that algorithms can be manipulated to promote pro-Israel content over pro-Palestinian perspectives, especially among younger audiences. This shift threatens to silence critical narratives and deepen existing biases.

For those of us engaged in the social justice movement – and speaking as a media justice activist – the most promising innovation in this fight comes from Issam Hijazi.

Issam Hijazi is a Palestinian-origin technologist, founder and CEO of UpScrolled, and head of Recursive Methods Pty Ltd, an Australia-based company. Palestinian-Jordanian-Australian Hijazi has an impressive background working with global tech giants like IBM and Oracle and has lived in Jordan, the UAE, Singapore, and Australia.

He launched UpScrolled in 2025 after observing how “meaningful stories disappeared from feeds while misinformation thrived.”

Though reports suggest he began work on the platform as early as late 2023, Hijazi has gained prominence for creating a space that actively counters the massive censorship and shadowbanning of pro-Palestinian voices – practices increasingly visible on TikTok and well-documented on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and other social media platforms.

Hijazi has been outspoken in his criticism of traditional social media platforms, slamming them for prioritizing profit over principle and betraying the very values they claim to uphold.

In a moving interview, Hijazi revealed that he lost over 60 family members in Gaza, and that UpScrolled was his small but meaningful response to that loss.

On the platform, he and his team emphasize that they have built a space that “serves people – all people – equally. No hidden agendas. No quiet silencing. No favoritism. A place where freedom of expression is protected, not manipulated, and where social responsibility isn’t an afterthought but the foundation.”

Available on both Android and iOS, UpScrolled is quickly gaining attention. While it’s still uncertain whether it will attract a broad user base, especially among those who support Palestinian narratives, the platform is already showing strong growth. So much so that their servers recently crashed under the surge of new users.

As they wrote on Bluesky: “You showed up so fast our servers tapped out,” with engineers now working to restore full functionality. Current statistics indicate an average of about 14,000 downloads per day.

I’m optimistic that UpScrolled can help us meet the challenge of truth-telling in this turbulent media landscape. I’ve joined the growing community myself – I scrolled, and I joined.

Hassen Lorgat is a South Africa-based social justice and media activist.

(The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of Press TV.)

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