Benzi Gopstein: “I went into TikTok, and I was in shock”

Benzi Gopstein: “I went into TikTok, and I was in shock”
TikTok removed the Lehava organization’s account. “They completely blocked me”, Gopstein told Arutz 7. Here are the vids that got the account blocked.
Yehonatan Gottlieb, 23 Tishrei 5781/11.10.20
After a number of videos from the Lehava organization’s TikTok account were removed, last night (Motzei Shabbat) the account was finally removed from the social video app.
In a talk with Arutz 7, Lehava chairman Benzi Gopstein said that he “is studying the subject” and that he will most likely start legal procedures against the second social media network that has decided to silence him.
“I was always getting told that young people are on TikTok”, said Gopstein to Arutz 7. “If I want to get to the kids and speak with them, the cool thing is TikTok and this Tiktok comes from China, and the Chinese don’t care so much about what they’re doing there. That’s what I was told.
“I went into TikTok”, he said. “The truth is that I was in shock over the amount of pornography there and over the amount of nonsense they give the kids. It’s full of Arabs laughing at the Jews, really shocking. I went in and then immediately left, I couldn’t even look at the videos.
“It’s sad to see so many of our kids, the children of the Jewish people, there”, he noted, “but I said, what can we do, sometimes you have to dip in the swamp to take the Jews out of it.”
In his words, “We opened a page there a week ago, during Chol HaMoed Succot. We produced humorous videos aimed at the youth. All kinds of videos meant for this age group of the youth, videos that speak to them. Baruch Hashem, we received very good responses, but we also saw the responses of Arabs there, and of the Leftists, and of the gay community, and they dealt with them by encouraging many people to get us shut down and to report us.”
He continued: “A day or two later, during which there were many views, they reported some of the videos and TikTok took down three videos. I filed an appeal, they put back one video and two others remained blocked. Until Motzei Shabbat, when I got notice that they took down and blocked the channel and told me, you can no longer post videos. They completely blocked me.
“It’s really sad that there is a lot of missionary activity on TikTok, and the wort things in the world are there”, he said. “This is really sad, because on Facebook people go in, parents, teachers… and people don’t go into TikTok, they don’t know what’s going on there. The situation there is so bad that to our sorrow, the ones in control are the Left and the Arabs, and they are the educators.
“I got responses there from teenagers and kids who said to me, what’s the problem with assimilating? Why are you talking like that? Why shouldn’t we assimilate? And the only real way of getting to these kids is via TikTok, and to my sorrow, they blocked it out”, he said.
“You can find every evil on TikTok, but somebody who talks a little about Judaism and about not assimilating – this, TikTok decided to close”, he added.
This is not the first time Gopstein’s social network activities have been blocked. “With Facebook, I have a lawsuit against them”, he said. “Facebook not only closed my channel down, you can’t even mention my name, you can’t put up a photo of me, they closed my kids’ Facebook because they put up a picture of Abba. Not that I’m hanging many hopes on the court, but at any rate, this is part of my claim against them. Instagram, too, which is owned by Facebook, blocked us. YouTube also took down our videos. I don’t want to mention what is still there so they don’t close that down, too, but very little of our stuff is still up.”
On a lawsuit against TikTok, he says: “I’m studying the subject. My lawyers are checking into it. I don’t know if there’s anyone to sue there, I understood that this site is a lot less organized, and we’re checking into this.”
Following are a variety of videos that the Lehava organization shared on the TikTok account that was taken down. The videos are up-to-date with the current trends common on TikTok.