Young or old. TikTok or X. Pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian. Your social media feeds are unique to you. Could they be shaping how you view the Israel-Gaza war?

Open up a ranom TikTok feed and two videos play one after the other. The first shows four Israeli soldiers dancing with guns, set against a blue sky. The other is a young woman speaking from her bedroom, with a prominent pro-Palestinian caption.

TikTok’s algorithm will determine what kind of videos you see and recommend similar content, based on which of the two videos are watched until the end.

The algorithms work in a similar way for other social media platforms too and it means some users are being driven towards increasingly divisive content about Israel and Gaza that only entrench their existing views and biases.

Clever political campaign managers are fully aware of the powerful influence of Social Media platforms and both Hamas and Israeli forces are using them to whip-up sympathy for their causes.

Un-verified and un-checked, manipulation of the algorithms which drive these platforms is a key component in the propaganda war for both sides.

And once you show an interest in one topic or another then you are defined by that and will receive a huge amount of follow-up posts in the same vein.

War in the Middle East is not the same as liking cat videos. It is serious stuff, with lives at stake.