With more than 3 million dedicated followers and 168 million likes on its content, the TikTok channel Under The Desk News specializes in short-form videos covering the news headlines around the world and claims to be the “go-to source for news” for GenZ and Millenials.
Headed by Vitus ‘V’ Spehar, who identifies as non-binary and appears in most of the videos, Under The Desk News is fast becoming one of TikTok’s biggest sources of misinformation following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
Hamas ‘Foot Soldiers’ and Al Jazeera Propaganda
The first video Under The Desk News published about the conflict was on the day Hamas terrorists invaded southern Israeli communities, slaughtering more than 1,400 civilians and dragging at least 240 hostages back to the Gaza Strip.
Spehar opens the piece with an explanation that the information contained within has been sourced entirely from Al Jazeera, perhaps unaware that the media organization is owned by the Qatari state, which has also been a key financial backer of Hamas over the years.
According to Spehar (and Al Jazeera), the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “goes back to, like, the 1940s because back then the United Nations decided to divide up this particular area of land into the State of Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and this was to basically divide Jewish folks from Arab folks.”
Of course, anyone with an ounce more historical literacy than Spehar would know that what actually happened predates the 1940s, such as the period of the British Mandate of Palestine, when Jews were the victims of Arab violence long before the British handed over the problem to the UN.
The subsequent adoption of Resolution 181 by the UN General Assembly in 1947, which would have seen the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states with Jerusalem under international control, was rejected by the Arab side. Five Arab armies launched an all-out war of annihilation when Israel declared its independence in 1948.
Spehar then fast-forwards to the massacre of October 7 — leapfrogging entirely over things like Israel being repeatedly attacked by Arab armies and the bloody Palestinian intifadas — and explains: “A Palestinian armed group called Hamas launched an attack against Israel. They admit to firing 5,000 rockets and they’ve sent foot soldiers into Israel.”
Spehar adds that the United States has given its support for “Israel’s right to defend themselves [sic]” and that it would provide resources for Israel to defend itself, while claiming Israel’s response has consisted of “bombing Gaza to pieces.”
We can’t imagine why Spehar didn’t give any details of how Hamas “foot soldiers” brutally raped women, stabbed babies to death, and burnt people alive during their rampage.
Spehar then gives viewers a bit of advice, warning them that if they’re “not an expert on this conflict or if [they] don’t have, like, a vested interest, it might not be a good day to kind of weigh in with [their] own little spin” — apparently blithely unaware of the irony of this statement.
Al Jazeera, Spehar adds, is a good way of keeping up with war developments because “they’re the most fair and the easiest to understand.”
The most fair and easy-to-understand thing about Al Jazeera is that it is owned by the Qatari royal family and acts as a mouthpiece for Islamist terrorist groups.
@underthedesknews♬ original sound – UnderTheDeskNews
Backtracking A Few Hours Later…
In a sign that Spehar caught some flak for the muted terms in which the Hamas attack was described in the first October 7 video, Under The Desk News published an update just hours later in which Spehar confirmed Hamas is indeed “a terrorist organization who are doing atrocious things right now.”
Alas, Spehar immediately segues into nonsensical conspiracy theories: “Hamas the terrorist organization is comprised of [sic] of a lot of 20 to 25-year-old boys — this is not as a sophisticated terrorist cell as some others have been. So how did they pull off this sneak attack this morning? Now a lot of what we’re looking at is who gave them the intel to get around the Iron Dome and all of the other defense mechanisms that Israel has. We’re assuming it’s Iran. Who told Iran? Russia. Who told Russia?”
First, describing Hamas terrorists aged in their 20s who were raping and murdering Jews in their homes as “boys” is ludicrous, insulting and, above all, tacitly absolves them of responsibility for their barbaric actions.
Second, “get around the Iron Dome?” Spehar must be confused about what the Iron Dome is because Hamas did not somehow bypass the defensive system — many Hamas rockets were shot down by interceptor missiles and others got through. The Iron Dome is a completely separate defense system from that which Hamas terrorists broke through to get into Israel on October 7.
Third, is Spehar seriously suggesting Russia planned the attack and told Iran about the plan, which in turn explained the plan to Hamas? Your guess is as good as ours.
@underthedesknews♬ original sound – UnderTheDeskNews
‘Hamas Cares About Your Kids’
There are too many examples of Spehar spreading blatant misinformation about Israel and the war on the Under The News Channel to list individually.
However, one is just too absurd not to be given a special mention, which is an October 10 video in which Spehar suggests murderous terrorist group Hamas is concerned about the mental health of children around the world.
“Parents,” Spehar says to the camera, ” let’s talk about your kids’ social media for a quick sec. Parents in the warzone of Israel and Palestine are being warned to remove all social media from their children’s phones. Globally, there is an advisory that parents also might want to remove social media from their children’s phones because this weekend Hamas is promising to broadcast footage of hostages. So Hamas is saying, ‘You have until this weekend essentially to take social media off your children’s phones or it is very likely that they will see hostages begging for their lives’… Hamas is saying, ‘We’re going to be putting out more [graphic content] — if you don’t want your kids to see that then you should take social media off their phone.”
Yes, Spehar actually believes the terrorist group that shot babies as they lay in their cribs and raped young girls is concerned about kids around the world witnessing their appalling violence.
Just to clear up any confusion: the only reason Hamas announced they would be releasing hostage videos was to further terrorize Jews. Nothing more, nothing less.
@underthedesknewsMessage to Parents at the end♬ original sound – UnderTheDeskNews
There is a much bigger problem, though, than channels like Under The News Desk churning out anti-Israel propaganda to impressionable viewers.
The greater issue is with TikTok becoming the most popular source of news for young people and the fact that the platform has been accused of regularly promoting “toxic misinformation,” according to a September 2022 report.
If anyone was wondering why so many students and other young people have taken to the streets and called to “globalize the intifada” over the past few weeks, look no further than the TikTok app on their smartphones.
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