9.54amWhat we heard on Monday from the social media giantsBy Social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, was the first company to appear before the commission on Monday and spent plenty of time detailing a relatively new policy.That policy, announced by Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg after US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House early last year, is designed to ensure content is not “over-enforced”.Meta’s global policy director Benjamin Good.Royal CommissionBenjamin Good, the global director of the core policy team at Meta, explained to the commission that the company had introduced the policy in January 2025 to focus on reactive removal of hateful content over proactive action.Another company that also appeared on Monday was the Melbourne-based live-streaming site Kick, which the commission heard had a low rate of content removal despite a high number of “reports”.Tiat Oon Ooi, the general counsel for EasyGo Group, which owns Kick, told the commission that the lower rates were probably due to “false alarms or false reports”, but he insisted that Kick had processes in place that “go above and beyond any other social media platforms”.9.48amTikTok’s global head of policy and trust first witness todayBy Hello, I am Alexandra Smith and I will be with you today as the Royal Commission into Antisemitism and Social Cohesion continues in Sydney.We will be hearing more from the social media companies today, with TikTok’s Zachary Hecht – the global head of policy, trust and safety – first up.TikTok is one of the most popular apps in Australia.APThe commission on Monday heard from the non-profit global organisation Cyberwell, set up to fight online antisemitism.Its founder, Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor, told the commission that TikTok has the highest rate of removing “violative content” once it has been reported by her organisation, with 88.8 per cent of content taken down. The average removal rate across the platforms it works with (which also include Facebook, Instagram and YouTube) is 52.4 per cent.Rachel Lord, YouTube’s senior manager of government affairs and public policy for Australia and New Zealand, will also give evidence today.1 of 1