A Nazi propaganda film is being spread online by social media giant TikTok four months after it was alerted to the issue.
Videos promoting the film Europa: The Last Battle, which features a discredited alternative history claiming Hitler had no desire to launch the Second World War, have been shared millions of times on the Chinese-owned platform.
TikTok last year gave assurances that clips and links to the 12-hour film, which also denies the Holocaust took place, were being removed. However, it is still being promoted on its app.
The film, which contains a succession of anti-Jewish tropes, including claims that communism was a Jewish ideology and that Jews own the world’s money supply, is still being widely spread by far-right activists.
One neo-Nazi who has used TikTok to spread the narrative claims: “If you haven’t seen it, watch it… It’s definitely something the Democrats do not want you to see, which is why you can’t find it on YouTube.”
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Tik Tok logo
Another post shows a man repeatedly making a Nazi salute with the caption “people after watching the last battle of europa”, while a further video, which was still online this week and has had 60,000 views, directs users to a website where they can watch the full film.
A researcher at anti-racism group Hope not Hate, Gregory Davis, said the film simultaneously “denies the proven reality of the Holocaust whilst providing justifications for the violent antisemitism that fuelled it.
“Its mix of blatant falsehoods and slanted portrayal of real events gives it no historical legitimacy whatsoever, and it serves only to demonise the Jewish people and whitewash the crimes of the Nazi regime.”
Last November, after being approached by the JC, TikTok claimed it was removing the posts, banning the associated accounts and barring searches for the film.
At the time, a spokesperson said: “We condemn antisemitism in all its forms, and there is no place for this kind of content on our platform.
“We have removed the accounts flagged and banned content relating to this film for violating our Community Guidelines.”
He added: “We continually seek to strengthen our policies and systems to counter hateful behaviour.
“We work with the World Jewish Congress and Unesco to provide our community with educational resources about antisemitism, the Holocaust and the Jewish community.”
In a statement for this story, a spokesperson told the JC: "Content of this nature has no place on our platform. We have banned the search term associated with the documentary and will continue to detect and remove any similar violative content.
"With more than 40,000 dedicated safety professionals, we’re committed to creating a safe and supportive environment for our community. We will continue to work closely with our expert partners to strengthen our policies and systems against antisemitism.”
