TikTok recently hired a new hate speech manager with long-standing ties to the Jewish community, the company confirmed to Jewish Insider, as the social media platform faces growing pressure to confront a sharp rise in antisemitic content.

The streaming platform enlisted Erica Mindel, a former State Department contractor who worked for Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt, the Biden administration’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism, to join TikTok’s global public policy and government affairs team. 

The hire comes as TikTok has drawn accusations that it has failed to address a spike in antisemitic and anti-Israel content in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attacks and amid the ensuing war in Gaza.

In her newly created role, Mindel will “develop and drive the company’s positions on hate speech,” seek to “influence legislative and regulatory frameworks” and “analyze hate speech trends,” with a particular focus on “antisemitic content,” among other duties cited in an official job description shared by TikTok.

Mindel, who previously served as an assistant director of program development at the American Jewish Committee, according to her LinkedIn profile, had briefly worked for the special envoy’s office in the second Trump administration before she was hired by TikTok, the company told JI. 

Mindel declined to comment on her new position, which was first reported by The Washington Free Beacon.

The role was initiated after a “high-level convening” the Anti-Defamation League “helped organize last year,” said Dan Granot, the ADL’s national director of antisemitism policy, who in a statement to JI on Sunday said the position was raised as “a key recommendation for all social media platforms” during the meeting.

“In a moment when too many social media platforms are scaling back efforts to fight hate, ADL welcomes TikTok’s establishment of a role focused specifically on hate speech and antisemitism,” Granot added, praising Mindel as a “trusted partner who understands the issue and the stakes, and someone we’ve worked with closely in the fight against online hate.”

TikTok, a popular video app owned by ByteDance, the Chinese technology company, has been facing a looming U.S. ban that President Donald Trump has continued to delay in a series of executive orders. In the interim, the app has worked to address criticism over its handling of antisemitic content — which had become a public relations crisis in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks.

The platform has drawn widespread accusations that it has enabled a surge of misinformation and hateful messaging targeting Jews. The actor Sacha Baron Cohen — who was among a group of Jewish celebrities and content creators that met privately with TikTok in 2023 — said the app was “creating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis.”

The Jewish Federations of North America, meanwhile, last year called TikTok “the most popular social media platform driving antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiments,” arguing the company “has helped fuel a horrific spike in antisemitism” in the aftermath of Oct. 7.

While research has indicated that some TikTok users who amplify antisemitic rhetoric have been able to sidestep the company’s moderation policies, other findings suggest messaging that is contrary to the Chinese government’s positions — such as posts supporting Israel after Oct. 7 — is generally suppressed on the platform.

The U.S. ban, which passed in Congress last year amid national security concerns over the Chinese-owned app and would require the streaming company to find a new buyer or shut down, even fueled its own antisemitic conspiracy theory on TikTok alleging Jews were behind the ban and had outsized control of American politics.

TikTok says it has worked on efforts that have “strengthened policies against hate speech and hateful behavior” amid the war in Gaza, according to a statement issued on the one-year anniversary of Hamas’ attacks.

In materials shared with JI by TikTok, the company said it has implemented “some of the strictest rules against hate, including antisemitism,” citing, among other things, its decision to “name antisemitism as a hateful ideology” in community guidelines, its “zero tolerance policy for antisemitic conspiracy theories and narratives” and efforts to “block searches” for “blood libel,” ‘holohoax” and other terms used on the app.

Despite such efforts, TikTok has continued to face scrutiny. Last month, a bipartisan group of 41 lawmakers wrote to the CEOs of TikTok, Meta and X pressing them to take action “regarding disturbing and inflammatory content circulating” on their platforms “in support of violence and terrorism” following a recent series of antisemitic attacks in Washington and Boulder.

Last week, Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Don Bacon (R-NE), alongside ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, announced the reintroduction of the STOP HATE Act, which seeks to crack down on antisemitism spreading on social media platforms such as TikTok. 

Still, Granot, the ADL’s national policy director, said that the group looks “forward to continued collaboration” with TikTok as the streaming app works with its newly hired hate speech manager.

“While the impact of this role will ultimately be measured by what it delivers,” Granot told JI, “its creation is a promising sign of TikTok’s willingness to take these challenges seriously.”

Jewish Insider’s U.S. editor Danielle Cohen-Kanik contributed reporting.