Video-sharing app TikTok is being used by Islamic State militants to spread propaganda to a younger audience, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Supporters reportedly shared videos showing IS fighters with guns and corpses being paraded through streets.
Some of the videos, posted in recent weeks, are said to have included TikTok augmented-reality effects that stream stars or hearts on top of the content.
Videos flagged by the newspaper have been removed and 24 accounts blocked.
The videos were identified by the social-media intelligence sharing company Storyful.
“This discovery fits with a pattern we've seen over some years of extremist movements successfully colonising and adapting to new social media spaces to reach large audiences,” Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, told the BBC.
“TikTok has shown it has the ability and the will to controversially censor themes opposed by the Chinese government.
“It is not unreasonable therefore that we should expect it to quickly remove terrorist propaganda.”
‘Pledge allegiance'
The video uploads also featured women who call themselves “jihadist and proud”, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In one, people are said to have…
