The TikTok Caliphate: How Jihadist Supporters Exploit Algorithmic Recommendations and Evade Content Moderation

Jihadist organizations and their supporters have long used social media to spread propaganda, creating enduring content moderation challenges. Despite TikTok’s purported zero-tolerance approach to violent extremism, terrorist propaganda persists on the platform. This study investigates how supporters of ISIS and Al-Qaeda employ TikTok’s features to exploit algorithmic recommendations and evade content moderation, increasing their visibility within a hostile platform environment. We strategically enrolled the platform’s recommendation system to surface terrorist propaganda and inductively developed a typology of five communicative techniques: audio camouflage (manipulating recorded audio and metadata), meme infiltration (embedding extremist content within pop culture references), blurred intent (distorting sensitive visuals), emoji codes (using coded language and symbols), and bait-and-switch (deferring the reveal of extremist messaging). Together, these tactics constitute a form of everyday extremism embedded within TikTok’s vernacular practices, aesthetics, and pop culture references, exposing the limitations of TikTok’s moderation and state regulations. Our study underscores the need for improved governance, culturally informed moderation, and greater collaboration between platforms and governments to combat online radicalization and extremism.