Abstract

The role of TikTok in advocating for the Palestinian cause has allowed Gen Z to be able to engage and participate in political activism. This paper will examine how the platform’s affordances leads to the rapid spread of political content, foster online communities and encourage advocacy among Gen Z. It will also explain the challenges that are often faced during the ongoing conflict , such as misinformation spread, the fast paced nature in algorithm and the issue of “slacktivism”. Through analysing these dynamics, this paper will discuss how effective TikTok is as a platform that empowers Gen Z to engage in political activism and shape the global discourse on Palestine.

Introduction

With the rise of social media platforms, the way information is disseminated and awareness is raised has transformed, especially through TikTok, making digital platforms a powerful tool for activism. (Kharisman & Hafizah, 2024). Political discourse in TikTok space can quickly gain worldwide attention  through viral content, hashtags, and real-time documentation. Gen Z in particular seems to engage with social issues in creative ways, fostering online communities and raising awareness to those often unseen through this platform due to its short, engaging videos and powerful algorithm that personalises content for users (Mohd Nor et al., 2025). One the most well known cases of TikTok driven activism is the Palestinian struggle, in which online advocacy has played an important role in shaping the perceptions globally over the ongoing conflict. The events of April 2021, during which Israeli forces evicted Palestinian families from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, has sparked a wave of online activism often referred as “TikTok Intifida” (Ward, 2021) as Palestinians and supporters utilised the platform extensively by using hashtags like #SaveSheikhJarrah, #SavePalestine, and #FreePalestine to attract global attention and amply voices that might otherwise be overlooked (Abbas et al., 2022). These hashtags serves as digital gathering spaces by bringing together vast amounts of content and fostering online communities united by their concern for the Palestinian cause. However, this digital activism also faces challenges that includes misinformation, censorship, and performative engagement. Even though the platform provides powerful algorithm and effective ways in pushing content forward, it also raises concerns for bias and discrimination (Kharisman & Hafizah, 2024). Additionally, online activism can sometimes lead to “slacktivism” due to the ease of participation (Cervi & Marin-Llado, 2022, as cited in Harlow & Guo, 2014). This paper aims to analyse TikTok’s role in helping Gen Z engage in political activism and influence social change, highlighting its impact on the Palestinian struggle by examining the platform’s affordances for political activism, how it fosters online communities, and the challenges it faces.

TikTok’s Affordances for Palestine

Tiktok’s features and the platform’s affordances play an important role in the shaping of space for political activism. According to Abbas et al. (2022), TikTok’s short-form videos and platform affordances, such as visibility, editability and persistence has encouraged virality and creative crafting of direct and indirect political content, causing TikTok to be a popular space for mobilisation and digital movements. The format of short form videos including its feeds that are algorithm-driven are made particularly to younger audiences which allows rapid spread of information (Mohd Nor et al., 2025). For example, creative contents made on the platform includes features such  as trending music, texts in videos and icons that allow Gen Z to share messages in ways that are easy and simple to understand when seen by other users (Abbas et al., 2022). These features on the platform allows political issues to be shown in a simple and understandable way to wider audiences, including users that are often not too fond to interact with traditional forms of media. Abbas et al. (2022) argued that there are two main categories divided from the content of political topics and shared on the platform, which are direct political content and indirect political content. Live news coverage, factual reports on the historical and ongoing conflict, international protests and first hand experiences from affected individuals are all within direct political content (Abbas et al., 2022). Contents as such are often shared directly by users who are usually physically present, giving their views which are unfiltered that might be different from mainstream media. For example, the platform shows live footage of protests across other countries in support of the Sheikh Jarrah crisis to raise awareness and express global concern about the event (Abbas et al., 2022). The concept which is known as “playful activism”, is a form of participatory culture that provides space for Gen Z to speak and address serious matters through lighthearted and playful communicative styles (Cervi & Marin-Lladó, 2022). By using audiovisual memes to discuss on social issues makes activism more engaging and approachable to a wider audience. For some individuals, the platform becomes a real time documentation of events, where it provides personal experiences and stories that can help complex issues feel more relatable and human. For instance, videos documenting the eviction of families that’s shared by activists like Mohamed El-Kurd, garnered widespread attention and fostered a sense of immediacy and emotional connection among viewers globally (Ward, 2021). Contents like this made possible by the visibility feature helps amplify voices and raise awareness of issues that are usually left out by mainstream media. Moreover, viral trends on TikTok can unintentionally turn into sites of political expression and resistance. There was a viral trend known as “This or That” featuring an IDF soldier dancing to the song “Jalebi Baby” by Tesher while gesturing towards the Israeli flag to indicate support for Israel which received massive backlash, in response Gen Z started using the song to symbolically choose anything over Israel,  expressing their solidarity with Palestine (Jackson, 2021). This highlights how Gen Z use the platform’s remix culture and association affordance to creatively reframe content to share political messages (Abbas et al., 2022). It also further pushes the points how trends that seem unrelated to politics can be transformed into the act of  “playful resistance” (Harlow & Guo, 2014 as cited in Cervi & Marín-Lladó, 2022), encouraging creative and unexpected ways to mix politics into a broader cultural landscape .

Fostering Online Communities

According to Bennett & Segerberg (2012), the Logic of Connective Action highlights how digital networks have revolutionised political participation by allowing individuals from different backgrounds to unite and address pressing issues in a more personalised and decentralised manner. TikTok plays a crucial role in this process by allowing users to self-organise through short videos and hashtags, voicing out their opinions, and connect with others who share similar sentiments, fostering a sense of community (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012) often referred as “affective publics”, which is defined as “networked publics that are mobilised and connected, identified, and potentially disconnected through expressions of sentiment” (Papacharissi, 2016, Affective publics section). The platform’s interactive features like duet, voiceover, stitch, and more, support this emotional and social engagement while the use of trending sounds like “Stand up” or “My blood is Palestinians”, the Palestinian flag, emotionally charged captions and edits help Gen Z showcase their stance and attract other like minded users (Abbas et al., 2022). Through these affective connections, Gen Z creates a sense of belonging and shared purpose that reinforces community identity (Cervi & Divon, 2023). Within these digital spaces, influencers and Gen Z activists plays a role in sustaining their follower base by utilising their platforms to raise awareness and encourage action (Kharisman & Hafizah, 2024). Their content often blends popular culture with political messaging by taking part in trends or creating their own challenges, these influencers help expand the reach of political messages and keep conversations alive (Kharisman & Hafizah, 2024). During the height of the Sheikh Jarrah evictions, many influencers used emotional storytelling to create powerful and memorable content that resonated with the audience. What makes the communities powerful is their ability to adapt and grow through ongoing interaction. Unlike traditional movements that rely on structured organisations and leaders, online communities evolve naturally through user participation. This reflects the idea of “connective action” (Bennett & Segerberg, 2012), where loosely connected people engage without the need for a central structure or shared identity (Abbas et al., 2022). Furthermore, TikTok’s algorithm can push political content to users who may not actively seek it out, creating unexpected entry points into activism (Cervi & Marín-Lladó, 2022). This unintentional exposure can help broaden community outreach and diversify participation. Though not everyone who encounters such content becomes involved to a significant degree, repeated exposure of these narratives contributes to a wider collective awareness in the long run. This form of digital organising is also described in terms of agenda-setting theory (Mohd Nor et al., 2025). Obiaje (2022) argues that media organisation have always set the public agenda traditionally by emphasising particular subjects, however social media platforms like TikTok are challenging this gatekeeping role. As Gen Z produce contents that attract attention, they influence not just the public’s focus but also the media’s coverage, which is known as reverse agenda-setting. Influencers who are similar to celebrities, has the ability to shape what their audience prioritise, which aligns with the idea of celebrity agenda-theory (Obiaje, 2022). TikTok makes ordinary individuals and content creators powerful enough to establish public concern regarding Palestine by putting their issues visible and emotionally relevance. In this way, agenda-setting strengthens the online community’s capacity to promote political objectives, and in short, the dynamic between user engagement and digital affordances explains how online communities are not only formed but maintained and politically empowered on TikTok.

Issues and Challenges

While TikTok offers powerful tools for Gen Z to reinforce political activism, it also faces a series of challenges that may affect its impact on driving long term social change, especially when it involves sensitive global issues like the Palestinian cause. The platform’s fast paced nature are among the greatest challenges because of how easily Gen Z  loses interest (Graham, 2018). TikTok’s trends come and go quickly, which also leads to exhaustion or boredom with repetitive trends and content among Gen Z (Kharisman & Hafizah, 2024). It can be challenging to maintain long term participation when even significant causes run the risk of being treated as passing trends. Although the movements in solidarity with Palestine gain strong initial support, they tend to struggle on sustaining momentum and maintaining interest over an extended period of time (Kharisman & Hafizah, 2024). Apart from that, the spread of misinformation (Lee & Abidin, 2023) can become viral regardless of its truth due to TikTok’s algorithm that’s designed to promote engagement rather than accuracy based on sensational or emotionally charged content (Cervi & Divon, 2023). False or misleading information may spread rapidly which harms the credibility of pro-Palestinian advocacy and confuse the audience, especially Gen Z. The problem is that because this type of content spreads so quickly, attempts to fact check or correct it are often outpaced and result in division and reduce users trust in digital activism. Even when people do engage, there’s often the question of how much it really means and how deep does that support goes. Performative engagement or “slacktivism” (Harlow & Guo, 2014), occurs when Gen Z users participate by liking, sharing, or commenting on content without engaging in deeper and meaningful actions (Glenn, 2015). They may experience a false sense of accomplishment due to the simplicity of participation, believing they are contributing to a cause. The platform’s design exacerbates this problem by prioritising short form and entertainment based content which may dismiss important political struggles. In the end, the ongoing political pressure or awareness of activism may end up being reduced to temporary acts of expression rather than. At the same time,  concerns about bias and censorship (Cervi & Divon, 2023) in TikTok’s algorithm raise the fact that content visibility can be unpredictable. It’s uncertain how much control Gen Z users have when some videos may be shadow banned or removed without explanation (Kharisman & Hafizah, 2024). This can limit the the movement’s participation by excluding particular speakers. Ultimately, there is no denying that TikTok provides Gen Z with the opportunity to fight for Palestine, however the platform can limit the depth and sustainability of their activism due to its structural flaws.

Conclusion

In conclusion, TikTok has evolve into a powerful platform for Gen Z to spread awareness of the Palestine conflict, transforming the digital space where “ playful activism” takes the centre stage (Cervi & Marín-Lladó, 2022). Gen Z’s content, trends and viral challenges have made it easier for users to creatively engage and advocate for social change. It is clear that the younger generation has utilised TikTok in a way that questions conventional narratives and amplifies marginalised voices through the use of hashtags and remix culture. While the platform excels in fostering awareness, it is undeniable that challenges like misinformation, censorship and sustaining meaningful engagement will arise. In order for TikTok to improve and truly be transformative, it must progress from viral moments to persistent political action to ensure that activism led by Gen Z leads to tangible outcomes.

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