Avi Melamed: and I'm going to let Havi introduce herself.
Avi Melamed: And then you know the session is is yours. So thank you. Havey. Thank you.
Hayvi Bouzo: Thank you so much, Maya. I'm so happy to be with you all. So my name is Havi Buzzo. I think the way to do. This session is, maybe I'll introduce myself. And you guys will introduce yourselves, and then I will share with you the presentation that is basically foundational
Hayvi Bouzo: for your presence online. If you guys are interested in being online making an impact which is so important right now, I can't tell you how excited I am that you guys are interested in this. I was just speaking to another event where also a lot of students were interested in making an impact making a difference. It's a battlefield out there. But you need to understand what's really going on, so you can navigate through it.
Hayvi Bouzo: And so you can be more impactful and also be careful and protective of yourself, giving that. There's just a lot of
Hayvi Bouzo: elements out there that are trying to, you know. Sabotage spread this information silence you. So you know, I think it's just a very important thing to have to be prepared and to have the foundational elements in order to be impactful, and to, you know, kind of
Hayvi Bouzo: gauge your way through this very important but very also uneasy space.
Hayvi Bouzo: So let me tell you a little bit about myself. My name is Hevi Boozo. I was born and raised in the Middle East Damascus, Syria.
Hayvi Bouzo: I come from a mixed family background, so my father is
Hayvi Bouzo: half Kurdish. My full name is a Kurdish name, but that's my grandfather to my father's side. My mom is half Turkish, which I don't know. If you guys are aware of the fact that, you know, there's just a lot of conflict in the Middle East, so like the Kurds and Turks don't really like each other, and I grew up with just kind of like having to kind of navigate through this. You know one of these conflicts that are out there, and also from Damascus. My father is from Damascus. My mom is from Aleppo
Hayvi Bouzo: also to cities that are kind of competing with one another, and then for somebody who's outside of the Middle East. They literally have no idea how complex this region is, but knowing that there's just so much conflict right, and that people could actually connect, and that there shouldn't be a need for this is something I grew up with. And I've always felt like
Hayvi Bouzo: I want to hear people's stories and perspectives. And it's important to share people's stories. I feel, and I still believe, that the power of storytelling is one of the most important ways that you can connect people that you can.
Hayvi Bouzo: you know, bring out the empathy that we all have towards each other. And as you guys know, the Middle East, unfortunately, has terrorism. So we have radical Islamic groups that have been ravaging the region
Hayvi Bouzo: and killing, destroying. And Syria is a very clear example of this, and we know that the Assad regime, who was thankfully went out of power, was also a part of that kind of so-called axis of resistance which is led by the Islamic Republic of Iran. And then there's all these different terrorist groups and militias that are all over the region. The Assad regime was facilitating that, and was part of that.
Hayvi Bouzo: and that includes Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic, Jihad, and all the different Iranian-backed militias in Iraq, and then, of course, the Houthis in Yemen.
Hayvi Bouzo: Now we have other elements that also might be radical. So
Hayvi Bouzo: it's an ongoing, you know, place of conflict. And we do see that the world focuses a lot on Israel.
Hayvi Bouzo: So you always you don't hear about all of these other things. You only hear about Israel and Israel's war with Hamas without talking a lot about October 7.th So I'm going to walk you through this in a minute. But basically I just grew up, and my mother was born and raised in the Jewish quarter in Aleppo. So I grew up hearing about this stories and what happened to the Jewish community in Aleppo
Hayvi Bouzo: things that you would never see in Arab language, media, and it's so heartbreaking and devastating. But at the same time, why, nobody knows about the Jewish history in the region which is really ancient, which is before Christianity and Islam.
Hayvi Bouzo: And I just know that this is my role in the world. And I've basically been working on promoting peace and coexistence between Israel and Arab countries. Of course the Abraham accords were watershed moments, and we'll talk more about that. But I co-founded Yalla, which is a platform online that aims to do just that through sharing stories and
Hayvi Bouzo: talking about soft things, commonalities, and connecting people through these untold stories in the Arabic language media. And of course, after October 7, th it became very evident and very important that this is also not being told in English, as much so we basically, everything that we produce is both in Arabic and in English. So we'll talk more about that in a minute. But I would love to hear about you guys. And what made you so interested in also making an impact
Hayvi Bouzo: and a little bit more about your background.
Hayvi Bouzo: So who wants to go first? st
Brooklyn Tory: I'm happy to start.
Hayvi Bouzo: All right.
Brooklyn Tory: I want to say thank you so much for being here, and also thank you so much for your support of the Jewish people, because it's really uncommon. Right. Now
Brooklyn Tory: I'm Brooklyn. I'm in my last year of my undergrad at Mcgill University in Montreal. I'm interested in clinical psychology. I'm not actually doing a project related to social media at all. I'm doing a research project. But I
Brooklyn Tory: I think that it's really really important right now, as the Internet gets more and more common that
Brooklyn Tory: everyone understand just how social media works. And honestly, I really wish everyone, from all the fellows were here to hear this, because I just think it's really important for all of us to get a better understanding.
Brooklyn Tory: Oh, that's my account.
Hayvi Bouzo: Hi Kat. Thank you, Brooklyn. No, I agree with you 100%, and that you know, it would make sense that even though you're not focused on this field that you want to know more and kind of navigate through this medium in a more efficient and knowledgeable way, and I agree that the more students know about this the better, because it's a battleground. It's basically a weapon that's being used. And yeah, I appreciate you being here.
Hayvi Bouzo: Who else wants to jump in.
Avi Melamed: I'll call on people, Sam.
Avi Melamed: Oh, Brooklyn has her cat.
Samantha: Hello! It's nice to meet you.
Samantha: I'm Samantha Abdu. I'm a freshman at the University of Cincinnati.
Samantha: and I am studying English and political science.
Samantha: And I want to do a project on social media because
Samantha: this semester I started social media on the Exec Board of Bearcats for Israel, which is just another
Samantha: club on campus, that is, for advocating for Israel. And I just started with like kind of my own little mentor who's also doing.
Samantha: who started doing social media. She's on social media for a lot of different clubs. And so I'm trying to watch her and figure out how to do it. But I still need a lot of, you know. Help with that, especially with like advocacy work specifically.
Samantha: And then I'm also I just had an interview for Hello, International's Content Creators Conference. So I definitely want to continue my work of like learning how to do social media because it's tricky like it's not. It sounds easy to just post things, but like there's a lot of misinformation. And it's also really hard to reach certain groups and certain people, I think, has a really big impact. So that's why I want to do the project on social media.
Hayvi Bouzo: Perfect. Great. What was the name of the 1st group you mentioned.
Samantha: Bearcats for Israel.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay.
Samantha: That's our mascot.
Avi Melamed: BBEA, RCAT, s, that must be.
Samantha: My goodness.
Avi Melamed: That must be your like mascot, right? Like.
Samantha: Yeah, it's a. It's the University of Cincinnati bearcats. But Maya called them the bobcats, or something.
Avi Melamed: Sorry. I'm sure I offended another university. Who has the bobcat? Okay, I'm just gonna call him.
Hayvi Bouzo: Yeah, thank you. Myo.
Avi Melamed: I'm going around the screen. So Ben.
Ben Monroe: Hi, thank you again for being here today. I'm Ben Monroe. I'm a senior at the Ohio State University, studying Arabic and Hebrew. I have almost 0 social media presence. But you know, you see a lot of it, and like the social media stories. And you see different things on both sides. So I just kinda wanna be here and understand kind of how to navigate the social media platforms.
Hayvi Bouzo: Absolutely. It's never too late to start on social media. You guys are young. You can do it, you know, and you'll be surprised if you're consistent, what you can do.
Avi Melamed: Thank you, Isaac. Thank you, Ben.
Isaac Babus: Yeah, I think I've had a pretty
Isaac Babus: consistent social media presence. But I want to do more
Isaac Babus: outreach to specifically the Jewish community. I sometimes feel like
Isaac Babus: I spend a lot of time making videos or persuasive writings and videos to try and convince people to not be anti-semitic. Or you know something along those lines, and I feel like it can fall on deaf ears a lot of the time, and it can be very exhausting. So I want to just work on making more content, specifically aimed at just Jewish people, just more happy things, more Jewish joy.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay.
Hayvi Bouzo: well, that's interesting. What you brought up. I think that's very important. That you're, you know. You're kind of realizing what's going on. But I don't want you to give up
Hayvi Bouzo: on trying to share stories, to change people's minds because you can.
Hayvi Bouzo: It might be difficult, and sometimes you need to kind of like the right moment. And the right story, right?
Hayvi Bouzo: That will just make people kind of be like, oh, okay, I didn't know that right? And don't be discouraged by the silence, because there's the silent majority is basically there. It's listening and watching, and they're probably not reacting as much. But these are the people you want to target, and we'll talk more about that in a minute. But thank you, Isaac.
Avi Melamed: Thank you. Aaliyah.
Aliya Zigman: Hi, thank you so much for being here. Sorry I was late. I was in the shower, but
Hayvi Bouzo: Where are you?
Aliya Zigman: I am a senior at the University of Denver, and I am studying psychology and philosophy. But I don't think I want to be a therapist and stuff, but I'm looking for
Aliya Zigman: Sorry. I was really thinking about what I was going to say, and then I got it in the moment it's coming back. But I spent 10 months in Israel from 23 to 24, and coming back to America after October 7, th was like a shock to the head like
Aliya Zigman: no one. It was just like astounding the way that people were responding. So for my project, I'm still exploring on what I want to do, but kind of connecting. Maybe the
Aliya Zigman: ways that, like the proxies in the Middle East, are like influencing
Aliya Zigman: American and Western minds through like social media and through the Internet. So
Aliya Zigman: I'm also stand with us at Emerson, fellow. So I have a lot of like training and advocacy. But my social media presence is
Aliya Zigman: minimal, except like reposting things. So.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay, that's great, and I will. I was just in Denver, which I loved.
Aliya Zigman: Oh, my God! If you're ever here again.
Hayvi Bouzo: Yeah, so awesome into vail, too, for skiing. It's
Hayvi Bouzo: but yeah, so sounds great. And we'll talk more about, you know, because you want to be there, and it doesn't happen overnight, you know. But there are different ways to tell the stories and thank you.
Hayvi Bouzo: Elliot.
Avi Melamed: Yeah. Thank you. Aaliyah. Sammy.
Sammy Shiff: Hi, I'm Sammy Chef. I am a
Sammy Shiff: senior studying education at Jack. So. But I'm trying to use my degree more for educating people
Sammy Shiff: outside the classroom.
Sammy Shiff: So I'm planning using social media to become like an influencer, talk about Israel, what's going on Israel, what's going on in Judaism.
Sammy Shiff: I create a podcast where share my, what's being live.
Sammy Shiff: be? It's like being Jewish on different college campuses
Sammy Shiff: and all that. So I joined this to learn how to bring up my Instagram to the next level.
Hayvi Bouzo: Awesome great thanks, so.
Avi Melamed: Okay. We'll talk.
Hayvi Bouzo: Talk about that. Thank you, Sammy.
Avi Melamed: And Jason.
Jason’s iPad: Hi, thanks for being here. My name is Jason. I'm a senior studying economics at the University of Texas. I really want to kind of talk and learn about social media, because I think it's kind of the other front to the war that no one really talks about and is used to weaponize us a lot. So I'm excited to keep learning.
Hayvi Bouzo: Awesome great Jason.
Avi Melamed: Thanks, Jason Eliovitz. Anything you wanna.
Eli Ovits: It's learn about you
Eli Ovits: to you. Nice to meet you and really come to learn because I'm old. So we don't understand social media. We have to use it, and we have to work with it. And so I'm really excited to learn more. Thank you.
Avi Melamed: But you're in transit. Where are you?
Eli Ovits: I'm in. Jfk.
Avi Melamed: Okay. Got it?
Avi Melamed: Oh, okay.
Eli Ovits: And it's sunny. Don't tell anyone it's actually sunny here in New York.
Hayvi Bouzo: I think we've met with Ellie with you.
Avi Melamed: Yes.
Hayvi Bouzo: Nice to see you again. Alright, thanks.
Avi Melamed: Thank you all so heavy back to you. Thank you guys for sharing.
Hayvi Bouzo: Well, I hear, you guys, there's a lot of the points that you mentioned that will be covered in the presentation. And for any other questions. We'll have some conversation afterwards, and I will want to hear more about what you're interested in, and of course you will feel free to ask me about the presentation in any area where you want me to expand or areas that I haven't covered. So can we start with the presentation?
Hayvi Bouzo: I'm gonna be like, okay, awesome.
Hayvi Bouzo: So
Hayvi Bouzo: we can. You know, I want to tell you more about bridging voices, because you guys, some of you mentioned how hard it is to go to an audience that you think are already made up their minds. And they're ideological. Okay? And the truth is is that
Hayvi Bouzo: this is not set in stone. And there's a lot of people who are silent and that you can actually impact. And you can make a difference. And they might even talk about the stories you're sharing, even if they don't engage with it publicly. There are. There's something to be said about trends. Right? People follow the herd.
Hayvi Bouzo: And that's why you see a lot of things that go viral and trends. And and it's just. But just because people just want to be a part of a group, a trend, whatever is, you know, making more engagement, but that should not deter you. And then, of course, the thing is is that there's all the issues and questions about algorithms of social media. So we'll talk a little bit more about that. So let's kind of
Hayvi Bouzo: keep going with the presentation. Next, I kind of don't want to. Is it okay? To just say next, okay.
Hayvi Bouzo: now, I want to tell you something. And why do I focus on the Middle East, because, as you see right now, we have a rise of anti-semitism and the anti-israel rhetoric that's happening in the West, it's very clear. It's evident you see it. You hear about it. Does it represent the majority? I don't think so personally, but it's very loud.
Hayvi Bouzo: You hear it. You see it escalating right? However, there is a situation that's happening in the Middle East, which is literally heading in the exact opposite direction, because what you hear in the Middle East is more. People are actually talking about the history of the Jewish people. They want peace with Israel, and they're standing against extremist groups. It's not, you know, in a way that like Oh, my God! Like the world is. No, but it's happening. There is a
Hayvi Bouzo: you can see the trend right? That is happening. And you don't see that covered in the Western media or social media as much as much as it should.
Hayvi Bouzo: But I wanted to start with asking you guys a question in terms of just the general rhetoric. What do you think when you hear the world, the Middle East? What's the 1st thing that comes to your mind. Who wants to.
Avi Melamed: I'm not calling on people so unmute yourself and answer.
Hayvi Bouzo: Yes, just what's the 1st thing that comes to your mind, like the Middle East terrorism?
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay.
Jason’s iPad: Dangerous.
Hayvi Bouzo: Dangerous
Aliya Zigman: Israel.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay?
Hayvi Bouzo: Who say that? Again.
Ben Monroe: Arabia.
Hayvi Bouzo: Arabia.
Isaac Babus: I said, conflict.
Hayvi Bouzo: Yeah, but Arabia. So that's actually a point that I would cover.
Samantha: Complexity.
Hayvi Bouzo: Complexity. Okay, that's when you're more sophisticated that's when you're no more right yeah.
Hayvi Bouzo: all right so let's go to the next slide, because all the things that you guys said are basically what people really think right like. That's the 1st thing people think they think of terrorism, war chaos, extremism, which is a reality. It's not like, you know, we're going to be basically saying that that's not happening. It is there, right?
Hayvi Bouzo: However, there is a shift that is happening, and people are starting to out loud which never happened before. Reject it right? They're starting to say on social media in Arabic, because I. That's what I you know. Do I post in Arabic? Because I'm trying to engage with Arabic speaking audience, and they are the most difficult to engage with. Why? Because you don't only have like
Hayvi Bouzo: decades of indoctrination propaganda. But you also have dictatorships. So people don't feel the the freedom, and they're afraid to express these opinions. But things have changed, and we'll talk about why this has happened. Now, that's basically where Yallah comes, because we are trying to
Hayvi Bouzo: give a platform to the voices that usually are marginalized and silenced on regular traditional Arab media, and generally on Arab social media. Because what Isaac was saying about okay, well, I'm not getting feedback, you know, in Arabic you get a lot of negative feedback, you get, you know, stormed by vicious trolls, you know, and just systematic
Hayvi Bouzo: attacks and sometimes threatening your life because of the fact that somebody is posting about wanting peace with Israel being anti-hamas all of the above. Okay, so let's go to the next slide
Hayvi Bouzo: and Arabic language. Media throughout the decades have been instrumental in brainwashing people towards Israel. So literally, Israel is
Hayvi Bouzo: called in Arabic language media, the enemy entity. That's the name. Now, this has changed. But basically, generally speaking, traditional Arab media is very anti-israel, and that has happened, you know, consistently for decades. That includes, of course, educational books, textbooks, billboards on the street.
Hayvi Bouzo: just the word of mouth, and the type of oppression that will happen if, for example, somebody who says, Oh, I want peace with Israel. There's a famous Egyptian writer that went to Israel, and he basically was marginalized, was punished.
Hayvi Bouzo: even though there's peace between Egypt and Israel. This guy lost his career basically, and was completely silenced and pushed aside because he went to Israel and said, I want peace with Israel. So this is what Arab media is. However, there was a shift that happened, and that started with the Iranian occupation of different Arab countries
Hayvi Bouzo: through terrorist proxies and extremist Islamic militias. And this has happened in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, and of course the threat that was happening towards Gulf countries throughout the last decade.
Hayvi Bouzo: And this has made people start questioning the banner right, of which the Islamic Republic of Iran is basically interfening in Arab countries under the banner of. We want to fight
Hayvi Bouzo: Israel and eliminate Israel to help the Palestinians.
Hayvi Bouzo: and that was their kind of excuse for going into all these Arab countries, and murdering and slaughtering and destroying
Hayvi Bouzo: so many of them. And people suffered a lot in these countries, and they were like, oh, so they're saying that they want to fight Israel, but they're killing the people in these countries, and that made them start questioning everything they're saying. So. That was the kind of a beginning of a shift. And when they started questioning, and then they started basically trying to learn more about Israel.
Hayvi Bouzo: And as people started to learn more about Israel. People started being okay. Well, but
Hayvi Bouzo: you know, Arabs live in Israel like this is basically they start realizing. Oh, but Israel doesn't do this. You know they're they're the ones who are murdering people. And social media helped
Hayvi Bouzo: with that transition. But social media is a double edged sword, and we'll talk more about that now, after the Abraham accords, we have a watershed moment, because all of a sudden you have, unlike the peace with Egypt and Jordan. You had the peace with Morocco, Uae, Bahrain, and somewhat Sudan. But Sudan has a lot of like instability. But basically that peace was a people to people peace.
Hayvi Bouzo: So all of a sudden, Arab countries are not marginalizing and punishing peace activists who are saying, We want peace with Israel. We're against extremism. We're anti Hamas. You know Israel is a partner. The future is in peace between the people of Israel and the people in Arab countries. So that was a major change that happened. And it basically allows for a lot of voices to come out and be
Hayvi Bouzo: advocating publicly for the peace between Israel and Arab countries on a people level next slide.
Hayvi Bouzo: So now, like I said.
Hayvi Bouzo: social media was a very important tool in allowing people who were deprived from any information specifically Arab countries that are not democratic.
Hayvi Bouzo: specifically like countries like Syria, even. Of course, Iraq, understand Hussein. Like, you know, you're talking about countries that definitely did not have access to information
Hayvi Bouzo: and all the other ones in general. But, like what happened is that social media all of a sudden gave the people a way to be able to learn about other cultures and contact other people and be in touch, like, just basically watch and learn things that they did not get access to, and this has empowered people to come out and kind of learn on their own. However, what happened is that social media specifically
Hayvi Bouzo: had its, you know
Hayvi Bouzo: dark side that we will discuss more. And traditional media also has been making major mistakes. Now, in terms of Arab countries, we know that there is, like the Arab language, media is systematically right, spreading propaganda, anti-semitism, and like, I will say that there are changes that happen to the better after the Abraham accords. However.
Hayvi Bouzo: traditional media has also have been misreporting information and making mistakes. And we'll talk more details about that. And I think
Hayvi Bouzo: post October 7.th We saw a massive amount of disinformation that were skyrocketed on both traditional and social media. And the problem with that is that even if let's say and we'll talk about the Ali Hospital case, but even when they come back and apologize, the damage is already done. You already spread
Hayvi Bouzo: false information, and you have millions of people heard it shared. It, made videos about it, talked about it, and it became their opinion.
Hayvi Bouzo: So when you come out and apologize, a, it might not only reach all of these people. B. It might not even matter, because they are going to hold on to that 1st impression, that 1st information that they have, and it becomes a kind of a
Hayvi Bouzo: a wider issue, a wider problem that now you know, the cleanup after this is sometimes not even attainable.
Hayvi Bouzo: So we'll talk more about this now in terms of specific examples, if you can go to the next slide.
Hayvi Bouzo: All right. So let's talk about the Eli Hospital, because that was a very clear example. Now, when we know
Hayvi Bouzo: every news that was coming out of Gaza was reported by the Interior Ministry of Gaza. Do you guys know who the Interior Ministry of Gaza is?
Brooklyn Tory: Hamas.
Jason’s iPad: Tomorrow.
Hayvi Bouzo: Exactly.
Hayvi Bouzo: It's Hamas. So all traditional media international media
Hayvi Bouzo: throughout the world was literally like in the Western world, which is very, very disappointing. Basically, they're using Hamas as a legitimate source of information about what's going on in Gaza, a terrorist organization that kills the Israelis that wants to eliminate Israel from the face of the earth that had attempted to commit a genocide, and that kills Palestinians, that kills, Gazans, that steals the aid. It's a an evil
Hayvi Bouzo: terrorist organization, bloody evil all the above.
Hayvi Bouzo: And basically, it's the source of information for international media. So that has been going on. And to me as a journalist, even when they say the numbers of deaths. For example, in Gaza, I do not believe it, because I will never believe, and
Hayvi Bouzo: terrorist organization that has been actually killing its own people, stealing their aid right that lives on murder, and has no credibility to be my source of information for anything but the problem also in Gaza is that all the international organizations and the so-called media that is in Gaza is infiltrated and controlled by Hamas.
Hayvi Bouzo: So Al Ahili Hospital was a very clear example, because there was. All of a sudden Hamas came out and said, There's 500 people that were killed in the parking lot of Al-ahili Hospital, a hospital in Gaza, and all the international media reported on this story.
Hayvi Bouzo: and that is the picture that you see in front of you. This is Al Ahali Hospital.
Hayvi Bouzo: That's where the bombing happened, and it's supposed to have killed 500 people there.
Hayvi Bouzo: And literally Israel came out immediately and said, but that's not us. We didn't do this and explained what could have happened, which might be either Hamas or the Islamic jihad, basically firing one of their rockets, and the rocket fell on that area.
Hayvi Bouzo: So international Media continued to, you know, spread the news as usual that this is 500 people. Israel did it. And then
Hayvi Bouzo: reports started coming out from Western Intelligence services, including the Us.
Hayvi Bouzo: Saying that that's actually not consistent. This, what looks like, you know, the the basically, the bombing that happened is not with Israeli airstrikes, and it did not kill 500 people. So the whole news story is false
Hayvi Bouzo: by many assessments. And there's explanations why? And then the traditional media started apologizing
Hayvi Bouzo: for misreporting the story. But the damage was already done. People have been talking about it and circling around social media tens, and not more millions of people have been seeing the news right and
Hayvi Bouzo: the damage is done again. So this is a very clear example of the failure of traditional media. Now let's go to social media because there's another example. And that's on Instagram. So all eyes on Rafa basically, became a very big story trend. And then, after that there was, were your eyes on October 7, th which started becoming a big trend on Instagram as well, and then all of a sudden it was deleted.
Hayvi Bouzo: It was deleted.
Hayvi Bouzo: Instagram apologized for that
Hayvi Bouzo: later, but the damage was done because the momentum was taken out was taken away, and there was no chance for this which was actually building all the tractions
Hayvi Bouzo: to get a place. So there's a question, why, right? And that's a very big problem with social media is that there's no transparency and explanation about a lot of the algorithm issues. The, you know why questions like, why is this person amplified? And like, you see that they're, for example, kind of trying to spread Hamas's propaganda.
Hayvi Bouzo: But they're giving complete green lights, and why somebody who's trying to
Hayvi Bouzo: be against Hamas and against terrorism and talk about peace, for example, is being silenced.
Hayvi Bouzo: So this is a problem that continues on all social media platforms.
Hayvi Bouzo: Now, so like, I want to be clear on that. All social media platforms have this problem, and I faced it personally on Facebook. I faced it on Instagram. I faced it in weird ways on X. Sometimes, like Y, you know, like all of a sudden, you feel like you're kind of shadow banned. However, it's very, very evident on Tiktok, because on Tiktok was a place where people were basically
Hayvi Bouzo: like, pro-peace activists
Hayvi Bouzo: literally would get no views, even though they were getting all the views before. And then people who are like promoting Hamas's propaganda get like so many views because it's literally an algorithm controlled issue right? And there's an Israeli guy who quit from Tiktok because of this issue and talked about it. And Tiktok has another problem is basically privacy. So it's very. I think it's
Hayvi Bouzo: important for people to know that when they're on Tiktok, that also there's a privacy question, because it's from like control, from like the Chinese Communist Party. It's an adversary country, like, what type of information are they accessing from your own phone? From your own? You know, whatever you're doing on Tiktok, right? So there's a lot to be said and kind of be careful with when it comes to Tiktok. So let's kind of move to the next slide.
Avi Melamed: Maybe. Can I ask a question? Who was the Israeli person that quit Tiktok? And what did.
Hayvi Bouzo: Awesome.
Avi Melamed: Maybe just give us that information.
Hayvi Bouzo: I can send it to you. I don't remember his name. I actually was trying to remember his name right now, but he came out and talked about it.
Avi Melamed: Okay. Yeah.
Hayvi Bouzo: I can send you guys that information because he there's multiple articles that were wrote written about him because he basically came out and was very kind of talking about his own experience seeing what happened, and he did not want to be part of it anymore. So yeah, that would be great. If you know, I will definitely send that to the group when we're having the discussion afterwards.
Hayvi Bouzo: Now interactive. Basically here, I want to show you. So so another issue that is happening on social media. As you guys can imagine, there's just so much AI content right now, like literally videos and images that look realistic, right? It's not so perfect yet, but a lot of times it's becoming more perfect. And we know if this is the beginning of
Hayvi Bouzo: this type of like video and imaging that this is where the technology is now imagined in a couple of years, where it's going to be a lot better.
Hayvi Bouzo: Literally, it's going to be such a big topic and big conversation in terms of how to spot and stop AI generated content from spreading as true information. Now, this is, we're going to do an exercise. Since we are 10 people. How many of the 10 are students? I just want to know, Maya, if you can help me.
Avi Melamed: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I think we should stay at 6.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay. So I want you guys to tell me which of the pictures I'm going to show you right now are real and which ones are fake because this is a problem that is right. Now, you've witnessed a lot online. So let's go to the next slide.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay, so here we have these 2 pictures and those pictures. Actually, those are videos apologies. These are videos. But they went viral. Okay? And I want you to to look at them.
Hayvi Bouzo: According to the post. This is Hamas, basically
Hayvi Bouzo: like launching an attack against an Israeli helicopter or a plane. And it got a lot of engagement. And it was like showing. Oh, you know Hamas is victorious right?
Hayvi Bouzo: so can you like look at them and and kind of write down? Which one do you think is real which one's fake? Then we can go to the next slide and also observe. And then I want you guys to tell me, which ones do you think are real? And which ones do you think are are fake? There are 4 pictures in total.
Hayvi Bouzo: Do you think you're okay with the 1st slide? Or do you feel comfortable?
Hayvi Bouzo: Do you guys feel like you saw it? You you made an assessment.
Hayvi Bouzo: Tell me, yes, okay, okay, this is the next slide.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay?
Hayvi Bouzo: All right. Well, let's jump right in there.
Hayvi Bouzo: Let's go to the 1st slide.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay, what do you guys think
Hayvi Bouzo: which ones are real and which ones are fake.
Hayvi Bouzo: Who wants to go first? st Let's I'm going to call out, you guys, Samantha, which one do you think is real and which one is fake from the 4 pictures presented.
Samantha: So there's 4 pictures, and 2 of them are real, and 2 of them are fake.
Hayvi Bouzo: No, I'm basically, I'm showing you all of them, and you can guess which ones are real.
Samantha: Well, the 2 on the second slide are definitely AI generated. They don't look real.
Samantha: And that one the 1st slide I don't know. Those are pretty convincing.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay, who wants to jump? Thank you. Samantha.
Ben Monroe: I'll go next.
Brooklyn Tory: Oh, go ahead!
Ben Monroe: Yeah, thank you.
Ben Monroe: I'm gonna guess all of them are fair.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay.
Hayvi Bouzo: Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Tory: I think number one is real.
Hayvi Bouzo: And the second are fake.
Brooklyn Tory: The rest are fake.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay.
Avi Melamed: Brooklyn, what do you mean? One? What do you mean? One.
Hayvi Bouzo: 1st slides.
Avi Melamed: 2 that are up now.
Brooklyn Tory: No, just the very 1st the the left one.
Avi Melamed: 1st one. Okay, the left one. Okay.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay.
Hayvi Bouzo: Jason.
Jason’s iPad: I think
Jason’s iPad: the I think both of them are fake, and the other 2, I think, are fake too. I think they're all AI generated.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay. Aaliyah.
Aliya Zigman: I think the 1st one's real like the 1st slide and the second one's fake, but I don't know. It's just convincing. So.
Hayvi Bouzo: Yeah, Isaac.
Isaac Babus: I'm with Ben. I think it's all fake.
Isaac Babus: I feel like this 1st slide that we're looking at. It looks pretty good, but I feel as if
Isaac Babus: this would have been more covered in Israeli news if this happened, and I don't remember ever hearing about this.
Hayvi Bouzo: but hey, you said, this was an actual video that these 2 were videos, they're, not they're, not they weren't still
Hayvi Bouzo: so there there are images. Okay, let me kind of like I would. I think we talked to everybody right? Everybody kind of weighed in So
Hayvi Bouzo: basically, whoever said they're all fake is correct. They're all fake. Now, let me tell you what's interesting. The 1st slide is from a video game.
Hayvi Bouzo: So this is a those are images from a video game. Okay? And it's was shared on social media and went viral. People believed it and shared it around. And
Hayvi Bouzo: it's basically like, completely a fake
Hayvi Bouzo: image. And there's a lot of that that continued to happen. Now, the second slide is interesting, because I mean, as you look to the one on the left that you can see how the arms coming out like in a way that is just not realistic completely, and the one on the right.
Hayvi Bouzo: The star of David on the Israeli flag is not even all there. But guess what
Hayvi Bouzo: a Bulgarian news outlet shared the picture on the right with the Israeli flags in this very clean and neat road, where the the tanks are on a cover page of its coverage.
Hayvi Bouzo: claiming that this actually happened, and that was basically the picture they put. So it's literally becoming, not only a problem where individuals are sharing this knowingly or unknowingly, that this is fake, but also, news outlets are falling for this.
Hayvi Bouzo: and it's becoming a widespread thing. One of the examples that I can share is that a lot of the videos that happened in Syria, for example, where there's like
Hayvi Bouzo: Russian airstrikes and Assad regime airstrikes against civilians, and they would literally target civilians. Of course, with the Islamic Republic of Iran. There's a lot of videos about these strikes because they happened over 14 years right? And a lot of these videos were shared online claiming that this is Israeli airstrikes against people in Gaza.
Hayvi Bouzo: and you would see in the Arabic language social media people would come out and say, But that happened in Homs that happened in Aleppo. That happened, you know, if people were talking about it. But it's basically shared, and it goes viral as if Israel did it. And that's a very big problem like this is basically the falsifying information and sharing videos that are completely fake and using videos from other incidents to claim, you know, to accuse Israel of it. Aaliyah, go ahead.
Aliya Zigman: I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about like
Aliya Zigman: Hollywood like this, like, you know, those videos of like people like Palestinians like faking like you've seen it like creating. Yes, can. Is that will you get to that? Or is that something that you can talk about?
Hayvi Bouzo: So that actually happened, too. And there's a lot of like, for example, there's like a either like they were acting something. And then they were like using the videos for whatever they're acting and spreading on social media that like this actually happened. And then you see the video
Hayvi Bouzo: and the photos of, when did this happen? And the fact that it's actually from like a photo, like a video shoot of like a movie or something that they were doing right. And again, it's being spread online. And people believe it. And people share it before check in. So I want to give you some tools. So you guys can be the ones to debunk these fake stuff that are being shared. So let's go to the next slide.
Hayvi Bouzo: So there are ways to do that. Okay? So there are obviously the tools that are available. Those are like available free tools online, you know, search, Google lens.
Hayvi Bouzo: reverse image search being, because, like reverse image search has been known for a long time. But it actually gets you to the origins of this video. And where was it shared. So, for example, for the ones that were like happened in Syria, and they were used as if, like they happened in Gaza, people would search them up and see that. Oh, this is from like 2014, you know. So
Hayvi Bouzo: also Bing, visual search or tiny eye, because those can tell you if this is AI, or real right?
Hayvi Bouzo: So these are really important ways and very easy ways where you can find the versions of this like, for example, you, said Hollywood, like you can know. Oh, well, this was actually from like a shoot that happened in, you know, 2017 right? And you can share it
Hayvi Bouzo: and debunk
Hayvi Bouzo: the lie. Right? So it's very important. That's also for you to check anything before you share it right? Because sometimes you can fall for the whatever is being said. You want to make sure that what you're sharing is actually accurate, and it's credible. So you have your credibility with your own viewers and audience.
Hayvi Bouzo: so it's really important that you also search the story because sometimes, like things can go online and be like, Oh, my God, this is a new story. Everybody's talking about it. And I have, you know, I do share things. I think it's that based on what's happening online. I think what's important is that like, if it's just something being circled online, you can say it's been circled online that this is happening right?
Hayvi Bouzo: But you can also check other sources and see if there are credible sources, are basically sharing that same story right? And based on that, you know what to how to present the story. And if you want to share the story or not.
Hayvi Bouzo: also, it's really important to know who are the people writing it. For example, if it's an article, try to search.
Hayvi Bouzo: of course, the outlet that has been publishing this article and the writers, because sometimes those writers, they're so-called writers, but they basically are in the payroll of like the Islamic Republic of Iran or Qatar, or, you know, so like you want to know who the writer is, and that would be another way for you to. Also, if you want to talk about it, to say Oh, well, I want you to know a little bit more about this writer. This writer does this, and this is on the payroll of this and this.
Hayvi Bouzo: So it gives you more tools and abilities to debunk and share the truth versus you know what's being shared?
Hayvi Bouzo: yeah, I mean, and look, for you know, so like, it's very important that you know the story that you're talking about as much as you can before you do all right before you publish it before you put it out under your name. So look for evidence, look for sources, studies all of the above before putting things out there and debunk the ones that are spreading the lies and the fake news and the AI generated stuff, because it's literally everywhere. Let's go to the next one.
Hayvi Bouzo: So I would now ask you about the conspiracy theories
Hayvi Bouzo: that have been basically spread online
Hayvi Bouzo: about the Jewish people, about Israel. Do you have examples you want to share?
Hayvi Bouzo: I'm going to share a couple of examples.
Hayvi Bouzo: I can, you know, kind of jump into it. So let's go to the next one.
Hayvi Bouzo: So we don't also take too long. Okay.
Hayvi Bouzo: Israel wants to take over Arab countries.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay. You see that a lot in Arabic language, and I'm sure you see that in English, too, Hamas is the victim. Hamas is a freedom fighter, and it's the real victim. Okay.
Hayvi Bouzo: they tried a lot in Arabic language media specifically and also in English, a little bit to basically deny October 7th until Hamas started putting out the videos and sharing what they filmed
Hayvi Bouzo: of their own atrocities. And I think that kind of silenced these voices.
Hayvi Bouzo: So let me tell you, how would you respond to these different conspiracy theories, you know, and lies effectively
Hayvi Bouzo: so we can go to the next one.
Hayvi Bouzo: So
Hayvi Bouzo: before you respond. And I think this is one of the most important things, because what happens on social media is that you can literally get stuck in arguments with people that are, you know, literally like not even helpful to you, what you're trying to do. So
Hayvi Bouzo: 1st of all, learn more about the story that you are going to be talking about don't jump in blindly. Okay?
Hayvi Bouzo: Because some of these people are just literally, that's their job. Like they are people who are like trolls. They're paid trolls online. And they're just the bots, right?
Hayvi Bouzo: So know what you're going to be talking about 1st and don't get emotional. They're going to try to get emotional and try to put you down and say things to make you angry and to respond. I think you always want to stay high, you know, never get emotional. Never like seep to their level. And, to be honest, once you know that you're talking to a troll. Leave the conversation. It's not worth it.
Hayvi Bouzo: because they literally get a waste your time, and they're trying to get exposure on your own shoulders. They're just trying to get their word out by using you as a way of like amplifying their message. Right? So do not get emotional. Just state facts and talk to people when you think it's a worth it conversation when somebody is actually asking questions. Somebody's actually trying to learn and to engage. Okay?
Hayvi Bouzo: And you can respond to these claims with very specific, clear question, you know, like responses like, if Hamas is a victim, why does it target civilians like, how is a freedom fighter? Quote unquote is basically murdering civilians and innocent people, including babies. I mean, this is just
Hayvi Bouzo: not something that anybody with their.
Hayvi Bouzo: you know, just like clear mind or clear head, or any value system would accept.
Hayvi Bouzo: And then, if you know, Hamas is defending the Palestinians, why is it abusing and killing Palestinians? There are so many videos online that you can find if you search of what they are doing to Palestinians, torture, murder, Palestinians talking about them right like. There's people in Gaza who talk about Hamas and what they have experienced. There are people who ran away from Gaza, and they also talk about Hamas, and I'll share a couple of examples with you. But share those stories, because that would kind of
Hayvi Bouzo: it's harder to basically argue when you have the videos of Palestinians who are saying what they have experienced under Hamas. Okay? And they are there. There's a lot of videos out there. So let's go to the next slide.
Hayvi Bouzo: So this is, for example, a visual right of the claim that Israel is trying to take over Arab countries. Okay.
Hayvi Bouzo: this is the map of the Middle East North Africa and the one in blue. This is Israel.
Hayvi Bouzo: and all of the ones around it are Arab countries. Share the map and tell them, how is Israel trying to take over Arab countries like the idea that this is even
Hayvi Bouzo: something to claim is ridiculous. And people have been, you know, talking about this in the Arabic language. And when you put this map? I think it makes people laugh at themselves because it's just not, doesn't make any sense. And Israel is, I think, now became 10 million people. 2 million plus of them are Arabs.
Hayvi Bouzo: So it's just, you know, a complete myth and propaganda. So you know, share visuals, right? Show visual evidence that are very clear. That will just debunk. What they're trying to say
Hayvi Bouzo: can go to the next one.
Hayvi Bouzo: Yeah, disengage with necessary. I said that before. Do not engage the trolls. They're just gonna try to, you know. Drag you down. Don't do that. Don't get emotional. Stay with the higher value system because they want you to go to their level. Don't do that
Hayvi Bouzo: share stories. I can't tell you how powerful it is to share stories.
Hayvi Bouzo: because that's I think what makes people feel and understand and connect in in ways that they would never do with just rhetoric, or, like.
Hayvi Bouzo: you know, just like general kind of detached information. It stays away. It stays further, right? You can't feel it. You can't connect to it. The moment you see a face and another human being
Hayvi Bouzo: sharing their experience, it changes. You become more invested emotionally in that person. Right? And I think that changes hearts and minds and makes people makes it harder for people to say that they don't care, or that they want to, you know, brush it off, because now they see the face they see the the person right? So
Hayvi Bouzo: talk about the Jewish people, about Israel, positive stories about Jewish Muslim unity, Arab-israeli cooperation, peace driven initiatives. I mean, this is what we do at Yalla, and I think that when you say those things it's really important for the English speaking audience as well.
Hayvi Bouzo: because those stories are not shared like they should be in the English language. There's a lot of people, and I know that Maya and Avi are going to be sharing with you more about like the different people you can follow. And you should follow from, like, you know, Arab Muslim activists online that are sharing their, you know.
Hayvi Bouzo: opinions, their experiences, and I think that those voices should be amplified more in English, because, you know, people from the Middle East like we know the Middle East more than somebody who is here, you know, going being an active on like Tiktok, and they have no idea what they're talking about, like the facts and the realities like would literally like, make the person here just realize.
Hayvi Bouzo: okay, I'm sorry. I don't know enough, you know, and there's a lot of people out there. They're watching, they're not engaging. And these are the vast majority. Like, we saw one of the videos that I just showed you earlier from the video game, the fake video game. You see, there's like 11. Sorry 1,700 likes right? But there's 253
Hayvi Bouzo: 1,000 views.
Hayvi Bouzo: These are people that just watched and did not engage. These are the people these are the people that you want to like, talk to. They're there. Okay. They're watching.
Hayvi Bouzo: They might engage, they might not engage, but they are there, and those are the people that you can change their minds and hearts. And I do. I want to say something to Isaac, because I agree with you like talking to the community right talking to the Jewish people in the United States, talking to, of course, people in Israel. But
Hayvi Bouzo: I always say that like
Hayvi Bouzo: when you're talking like you're preaching to the choir right? Like, I mean, you're definitely like, it's important to empower
Hayvi Bouzo: everybody right, and to like rally people around each other, and for unity of the Jewish people, and with Israel, and all of that which is important. But if you really want to make the the change, you want to reach out to the people who are not
Hayvi Bouzo: already agreeing with you, because that's how you can shift things, and there is a way to do that. It's just a matter of how you kind of. And they know people are doing this. And they're, you know, being effective. It's not easy, but it's there. So let's go to the other one. I see that somebody sent a message.
Hayvi Bouzo: Oh, yeah, yeah, I have to finish.
Hayvi Bouzo: Yes, I know it's gonna work. With that.
Hayvi Bouzo: It was me the sentiment.
Hayvi Bouzo: Let's let's jump into the next slide. Okay, so I was going to tell you very quickly about yellow. So yellow is what you know. I kind of told you already about what we do, because we tell stories, and we share stories, and we bring conversations that nobody talks about in Arabic language. But it's also in English. So everything is in both languages. I want to show you a couple of videos. We're not going to show all of the videos. So we don't because we don't have time. What time is it. Okay?
Hayvi Bouzo: So let's go to this. Okay? So I want to show you the Menard Menard is a girl who lived in Gaza.
Hayvi Bouzo: She basically was imprisoned by Hamas because she was against Hamas, and she kind of realized she didn't know she was pro hamas. Okay before she lived there. She saw the truth about Hamas. And then she came out right after October 7th on Yalla and talked about what Hamas basically was doing in Gaza. Okay? So this is just a short clip just to kind of for you guys to see. Because, like.
Hayvi Bouzo: when you have that type of situation people are, it's harder for people to respond to this.
Hayvi Bouzo: Oh, we can't hear it.
Avi Melamed: Didier, are you sharing the sound.
Hayvi Bouzo: Yes, I thank you, Maya. I was. I was sorry, did you? I've been trying to remember how to say.
Avi Melamed: Once again. I was just waiting for it for you to tell me if it works or not.
Hayvi Bouzo: O'clock.
Avi Melamed: Share, share, well.
Avi Melamed: I.
Avi Melamed: Hmm.
Avi Melamed: You may have to reshare with sound.
Avi Melamed: Because before it was okay, one second.
Avi Melamed: Can I just ask Kv. A question real quick while Didier is resharing? Because I think you can't change it once it's shared. You're talking.
Avi Melamed: You take it.
Avi Melamed: Oh, you can!
Avi Melamed: Yeah.
Avi Melamed: Okay, go ahead. Sorry. I'll I'll wait for my question then. No, we don't hear no reshare it
Avi Melamed: with sound. I think you should reshare it.
Avi Melamed: Trying to do once again.
Avi Melamed: No, I'm saying like, take down the presentation.
Avi Melamed: This is what they need. No.
Avi Melamed: No.
Avi Melamed: Constige.
Avi Melamed: Yeah.
Avi Melamed: Is it working one second, stop, share.
Brooklyn Tory: It was working.
Avi Melamed: Oh, it was working.
Hayvi Bouzo: How's it to us? Okay, stop it.
Avi Melamed: Oh!
Avi Melamed: We shall overcome.
Hayvi Bouzo: Talking about like her experience when she like started meeting people in Gaza. And what they told her about what Hamas does. Okay? So just
Hayvi Bouzo: Hamas, Majesty.
Hayvi Bouzo: Nope.
Avi Melamed: No, it's good. I wanted it from the beginning. Thank you.
Avi Melamed: That's what I just did once again, said Hamas Majesty.
Avi Melamed: It was for the next one.
Hayvi Bouzo: Yeah. So this is a very emotional part, because that was like the interview I did with the cousin of Shitty Bibbas.
Hayvi Bouzo: talking about the her cousin Shiri and the babies Kfir and Ariel, and
Hayvi Bouzo: was very emotional. We both cried, and of course that happened before. We now know that they were murdered by Hamas.
Hayvi Bouzo: He really is amazing, boy, and you know a four-year-old can tell
Hayvi Bouzo: they're bright. They're aware of what's happening. He probably misses his father so much you know.
Hayvi Bouzo: thinking about we being separated for so long. Think, fear! What can you say about such a young baby?
Hayvi Bouzo: We didn't get the chance to enjoy him yet, you know
Hayvi Bouzo: he was a calm, smiling baby, and watching him. And, my boy, you know my baby. His name is Guy, you know, thinking about how they will grow up together. They need to be home, back with their loved one. And, by the way, I really want you can pause it. This is Yuli Yuli Benami. Her father actually came back.
Hayvi Bouzo: Ohad! So that's that's a more like, you know, after watching the other one like
Hayvi Bouzo: it's just so heartbreaking, you know, when people watch the stories of the hostages, then, you know, like, you basically are connected to another human being, right? And I think what happened in Arabic.
Hayvi Bouzo: like the Arabic language, social media media is that people don't know. Nobody shows them. They deny it. They show the opposite. They're like.
Hayvi Bouzo: So all of a sudden they're confronted with the truth. Right? And it makes people say like, we didn't know this. Oh, my God! This is so heartbreaking like like people are responding in ways where like, Oh, you know, like, they're kind of shocked. And it's really important to share the stories I'm not going to tell you how much, even though sometimes you don't see it. You don't see the response.
Hayvi Bouzo: No, it's making an impact to get back to my life with my parents, and
Hayvi Bouzo: in some day I want my father will be in my wedding to meet my kids.
Hayvi Bouzo: and I'm really scared that it's not going to happen.
Hayvi Bouzo: He really is man.
Hayvi Bouzo: This actually also is right after October 7.th And this Amjata, who is actually one of the people that you would see in the in the portal that you have with like people, you should follow Amjata. He came out, and he was talking any about October 7, th
Hayvi Bouzo: which is really important in the Arabic language.
Hayvi Bouzo: Okay, so this one is like an attempt to be funny, because, like.
Hayvi Bouzo: look, I think humor is a way to like, get your thoughts out in a way that like will kind of go deeper into people without them wanting to.
Hayvi Bouzo: So that was because in Arabic social media. They were saying that Hamas has won the war because of the ceasefire that just happened recently, that, oh, my God! Hamas won! Israel is doing what Hamas wants. So that was just kind of like a conversation between. And I am showing you this because it's in Arabic. But there's English subtitles. Let me know if you can understand it. But I think it's a very important tool, because there's a lot of response to this
Hayvi Bouzo: about, you know, basically, people being like reactive to funniness. It's important to try to use humor if you can.
Hayvi Bouzo: En filtra Kisiani.
Hayvi Bouzo: Hamas, and Tossert.
Hayvi Bouzo: we know who will enter da dum el in jazzarta bado.
Avi Melamed: Tick tick tick tick.
Avi Melamed: The Tektiki, Hezbollah, Mahat, October, Philadelphia.
Avi Melamed: can hide her wedding to start.
Hayvi Bouzo: I feel you.
Hayvi Bouzo: Oh, okay.
Hayvi Bouzo: well, it makes any sense in English as much. But people who watch in Arabic. They laughed at it, and I had tested it with some people who only speak English, and they did laugh. But you know, I think it's just it got a lot of people's reactions. Because when you're talking about something that is, you know, going like viral people are talking about it
Hayvi Bouzo: and then make fun of it effectively. I think it's a very important method. Now I can be like, probably I'm not as funny. But if you have the, you know talent of humor, I think, use it. It's really important. So this is the end of our presentation. I would love to know what you guys think, what's up to you the most, and we can jump into the conversation.
Avi Melamed: So I just have one thing. I have one question, and I have one comment. Didier, you can stop sharing. Didier is going. If you haven't visited Havis Resource Page, as you know, each. I hope you're
Avi Melamed: you're checking. Each of the educators has their own page. Didier can also share a link directly to Havi's resource page in the chat. Haveey's resource page in the portal has influencers that Havi thinks you guys should follow, and Didier did a great job of making it look really pretty.
Avi Melamed: just like Didier did a great job of making that map, for that was the last we're always working. So the map that we shared of the Arab world in Israel. That was actually a map Didier did in the last hour before the session, because Habe wanted a little bit of a better map. So Didier made it happen, and Didier made the so go to Habe's resource page.
Avi Melamed: See the people that she follows. Maybe some of them will be able to have on a future session. That's part of the reason that Habey's here today. So that's 1 thing that's a comment. So please check out her page on the portal.
Avi Melamed: Havi. I'm curious to know you talk about sharing, do you think, for social media is sharing better than creating your own content, because I'm thinking people are thinking here about creating content like, what do you feel is sharing
Avi Melamed: better or is creating better? I'm curious. I'm sorry to take up a question, but so.
Hayvi Bouzo: No, no, that's good. That's a very good question. So I think definitely both.
Hayvi Bouzo: And if you're able to actually create content, I think that's very powerful because you can use what's actually happening and kind of have your take on it right? Either a post or make videos, obviously, videos are very effective. They're the most effective because a lot of people would like to watch things and not read as much
Hayvi Bouzo: that's just becoming the thing. Now, also, podcasts are effective, but podcasts are just longer. You know, you need to have, like longer kind of, you know, interview or
Hayvi Bouzo: a full on conversation, like, if somebody's driving a car or doing something, and they're just listening to a complete, detailed, cohesive idea, right?
Hayvi Bouzo: But I think creating content is very powerful. But then, sometimes what you need is literally both. Even if you do create content, that you also share and talk and discuss the kind of what's going on right now, because sometimes creating contact, you're talking about something that is happening. And if it's not newsy that content could be shared at any time, it could be discussed at different, you know, whatever it is.
Hayvi Bouzo: But when things are happening so quickly on social media, sometimes you literally don't probably have the ability to jump on it and create something right away. Then you can discuss things that are just in a shorter format or use something that's already online, like, get a video that is already. And then you can work that video which could also be quick.
Hayvi Bouzo: There are so many like, for example, there's an app called caption
Hayvi Bouzo: that could create, you know. Transcribe the video, whatever you're saying on top of it, make it clear. You can make it in both languages. You can make it in Arabic and in English, for example, I haven't seen any other app that does really good job in Arabic, like captions.
Hayvi Bouzo: you know, things like that like utilize social media, the tools that are available online, like those kind of apps that are out there to help you create content very, very quickly. But yes, people do connect to a face. And you talking to them.
Hayvi Bouzo: They're gonna start getting hooked. And the thing with social media is consistency. I can't tell you sometimes I'm like, Oh, my God, I'm going through so much, and I'm like, Oh, my God, I'm going to post right now on X, because I want to keep
Hayvi Bouzo: being relevant and connected to people so that they can expect content, you know, from me
Hayvi Bouzo: on social media, right? Because people start getting used to you, and if they don't hear from you for a while, they're like, Oh, this person is just not there like I'm moving on, and there's just so much competition. So yeah, these are definitely the the ways to kind of get people to start following you and engaging with you.
Avi Melamed: Brooklyn, and then Ben.
Brooklyn Tory: 1st I want to say thank you for the.
Brooklyn Tory: For some reason, lecture is the only word that's coming to my mind. But that sounds too academic. You know what I mean. Presentation. There it is.
Brooklyn Tory: I 1st want to say, I never even thought of using like Google Lens to search back. So thank you for that tool. My question is regarding like, especially the Tiktok algorithms. Is that more a technical mistake? Or is it really more purposeful because those sort of extreme videos are more addictive to audiences.
Hayvi Bouzo: That's a good question. The fact that this is not an American company where you can't know for sure what they're trying to do. Because look, algorithm is not like something that happens like, you know, randomly, it's designed a specific way. Yes, there are stories like that are just become, you know, like they go viral because it's something that people are interested in.
Hayvi Bouzo: And the algorithm is meant for people to get engaged and addicted and be on. You know that app as much as possible. So they kind of empower that. But when you see that there are things that are being like here, it's limited all of a sudden. And you're like not getting anything less than before, even though this story is important. And then, on the other end, you're getting so much
Hayvi Bouzo: engagement, then. Yes, there's something that is happening technically in the algorithm that is suppressing an opinion and amplifying another one that is
Hayvi Bouzo: fake and disinformation. So, you know, I think that's why we have a lot of questions in the United States about like, why do we let our younger generations stay on these apps that we don't even know what is being like, designed for them, like what is being pushed for them to see what is being. You know. It's a very scary, and it's new. And I think we're still learning on how to manage and deal with this
Hayvi Bouzo: which I think is really really important. So this is an ongoing conversation, but in the example. And I think that I mean I don't think I should be looking it up right now, but for, like the guy who quit the Israeli guy who quit from Tiktok is because he saw that it's happening systematically. Right? So is that his story.
Avi Melamed: Yeah, is that that person? By Gershowitz.
Hayvi Bouzo: Yeah, I think so. Where is this? Is this?
Hayvi Bouzo: It's I send you the link in the chat. Let me share it.
Hayvi Bouzo: So all Israel news. Okay? And I think he did interviews on different outlets. They interviewed him.
Hayvi Bouzo: So this is the guy.
Hayvi Bouzo: That was a very clear example, because he witnessed that he was an employee at Tiktok.
Avi Melamed: Yeah, just send it to everybody, cause I want to be mindful of time.
Avi Melamed: I was just confirming, Phil, that you don't.
Avi Melamed: Like thoughts. Yeah.
Avi Melamed: no, no, no, I know. No, I know that. I know that. I know that. Just send it on the chat and on Whatsapp. So.
Hayvi Bouzo: And be careful with Tiktok, because it's also, you know, like your privacy.
Hayvi Bouzo: what you're sharing. We're talking like literally assume that everything you're doing on that app is basically being taken away like this being copied, and.
Hayvi Bouzo: you know, saved against you right? Like. So it's a very and not to mention that we don't even know if it's actually infiltrating the entire phone. So there's a lot of security questions to be mentioned. Now, the issue here is that I don't recommend people not to be present because of the fact that you cut your voice matters.
Hayvi Bouzo: but I don't know what's the way to do both. So I think, like it's important to keep in mind that this is something that is continuing, you know, to become like a like. The solution for this is something I think, that is in the making. Right. But stay, stay online. Stay, just be careful with Tiktok, and know that. Yes, things are being, you know, kind of controlled in terms of the algorithm.
Hayvi Bouzo: Ben.
Ben Monroe: Hi, thanks again for speaking with us today.
Ben Monroe: I've had a good amount of trouble the past few years dealing with friends who see the Israel Gaza war as a genocide, and because of that, Israel is undefensible.
Ben Monroe: And you know they post a lot of stories. Some of them are anti-semitic. Some of them are just, you know, pro Palestine Palestinians in Gaza, and I confront them on it, and I ask them questions, and I kind of. Just get shot down and ask them to go for coffee, so we could have a conversation, and again I got shot down. So I'm curious. How would you deal with friends who kind of respond in that way?
Hayvi Bouzo: Well, let me tell you.
Hayvi Bouzo: 1st of all, Ben, you know what you're going through is a lot of people went through this. It's very hard. It's very, very. It's been so rough and so tough.
Hayvi Bouzo: And the problem is that people here, when they tend to think they know about something. They become very ideological and like I know the truth and nothing. But so that's a problem. And let me tell you, the people who you lose because they don't want to hear you. They're not friends, and they're not your friends, and you do not want to engage with them. However.
Hayvi Bouzo: I truly believe that they do not represent the majority. I think there's a lot of quiet people, silent people that are probably in the middle, right that they're like open to both, and those are the people that you can talk to and engage with. So stay away from the ideologues. You're not going to be able to change the mind, and when they want to, when things probably come out and they feel like, Oh, maybe I was mistaking
Hayvi Bouzo: they come to you. Great! You're welcome them with the open arms, but not now, not when they are the ones shunning you, and not even able to hear and listen to your perspective. I think there's a lot of polarization that is happening and extremism
Hayvi Bouzo: in the opinions of a lot of college students. And it's because, you know, at a young age. You want to do the right thing, and you want to have a cause, and you want to. You know, it's like a natural inclination, but they're literally being misled and used as tools by terrorist organizations that murder their own people, I think you know, share the stories like when you have the ability to share your like. You can actually comment on these people with the story
Hayvi Bouzo: that you know are telling the realities that they're not sharing. So you could just comment with your own stories, share the voices of peace activists and people who are anti-hamas to share their perspective. You copy, paste that story, and everywhere you can. You know you do your thing, and just let them have their own conversation, but you also can kind of hack into their conversation at the same time.
Avi Melamed: Sam.
Hayvi Bouzo: Sam.
Avi Melamed: Yeah.
Samantha: Hello, thank you for your presentation.
Samantha: I'm just curious.
Samantha: We talk a lot like in this fellowship. There's so much information that we learn with all the clubs that all the fellows are in all the things that we see online. There's so much information that we're learning about. Where do we start like with social media? What kind of information, what kind of content do we start off? Do we like? Do we have to pick a theme like I don't like. Where do we start.
Hayvi Bouzo: Very, very good question, and it depends on what like. So you're going to have a brand right like, think of yourself as a brand.
Hayvi Bouzo: You're gonna put yourself out. There you are a
Hayvi Bouzo: you know your name and who you are, and whatever you're putting out is representing a specific brand that has different elements in it. And it has different objectives. Right?
Hayvi Bouzo: So usually, if you're trying to attract people who are not within the circle of people who already agree with you. You need to talk about things that they're also interested in. So you can talk about commonalities like one of the things that like for me and for Yala is that we also talk about the things that are impacting everybody in the Middle East North Africa like when I talk about. For example, the occupation of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Hayvi Bouzo: This is something like, it's a problem that's affecting everybody, right? And it's a common issue that Israel shares with the Arab countries because it's a threat to everybody in the Middle East North Africa.
Hayvi Bouzo: So you talk about things that are in common. And then you talk about the things that you want to actually influence. Right? So you can choose and pick whatever represents you like. What are the things you're interested in. What are the things that you think you have in common with others who could be in your university, and of course, around the people you don't even know right like what is interesting trending. But also you share, and you care about
Hayvi Bouzo: and then have that and your issue right?
Hayvi Bouzo: So you vary it.
Hayvi Bouzo: So people can actually come to you, you know, like one of the things like Montana Tucker, for example, she's 1 of the people that I recommend in the portal, and she's a dancer.
Hayvi Bouzo: and she does like funny skits and things like that. So she continues to do that right. But then she talks about Israel. She talks about her opinions and the truth. She shares facts that other people are not sharing. So that's what you want. Think of yourself as a brand, build the brand, and then always have consistency. And talking about the things that you will, you know, bring people in and then give them. You know your message. I hope this.
Avi Melamed: I'm curious. So the people that like, I know, Sam, you want to do social media. I know, Isaac, you're kind of in that social media. Jason, are there specific questions that you have like that that you want like that? You want to ask Kv. Or anything you want to say like about the pro like, Sam, you just asked. But anything specific about like Jason or Isaac, or any I know.
Hayvi Bouzo: Donna, I think, wants to.
Avi Melamed: Social, media specifically.
Hayvi Bouzo: Yeah. Well, he's raising his hand.
Avi Melamed: No, it's okay. I want to. I want to talk about the projects that the people are. I. It's important to me to be able to talk about the projects that people
Avi Melamed: are interested. So Isaac and Jason.
Avi Melamed: and Sam, are there any specific about? You're still kind of thinking about your project. But I'm just curious, Sam, Isaac and Jason. If there's anything specific about your project that you kind of want to talk about or did this. Did this help? You kind of think a little bit about what kind of direction you want to go.
Jason’s iPad: I have a question surrounding social media, and like, I guess.
Jason’s iPad: the content creation side of it. Whenever you're whenever, whenever you do want to like, create, content and push it. What is the
Jason’s iPad: what do you feel like? The best ways are for it to be seen when you post it.
Hayvi Bouzo: So what I do, and I'm going to tell you some of my tricks. I share it to people directly, so I pick people who I know agree with me.
Hayvi Bouzo: and people that like, you know, are out there, that I know, and they're not, of course, against what I believe.
Hayvi Bouzo: and I just send it to them in messages directly. Okay? And they're like, X is more expensive. But like you could actually promote if you have like content, that is short.
Hayvi Bouzo: you can start promoting your content if you're really serious about it, and we can talk. And of course, in the mentorship I can give you more specific tools. I can actually help you. I mean, we can talk about like ways of how you can put yourself out there more
Hayvi Bouzo: right in a systematic way, but, like you can literally share it with different groups. People you already agree with and ask them, promote it, promote it, share it as a story. You know. You can collab with people you can share Collab right like on Instagram. Now, a lot of people collab with each other. So you talk to them before. Hey, I'm doing this video about this. Can you please collab this video with me? So like, you know what I mean. So you start like building a network of people that support
Hayvi Bouzo: you, that believe in what you're doing, and then they will like share it across. And then the same thing with the stories. Right? You ask them. Just share it as a story on X, the same thing. You just send them the the thing and ask them, hey? Can you like? Can you share? Can you repost all the above right, and you'll do the same for them, because you already agree with them? So when they do this they will start sending you. They rely on you. And literally, you're creating like a
Hayvi Bouzo: a beehive of just people who, like, you know, working for the same purpose. And you know it, basically that I believe in team. You know, you build a community right of people that you agree with, and they agree with you, and but also be careful with not going into things that might be controversial, like, if you're trying to be soft. If you're trying to go to the audience that don't already agree with you. You want to be soft.
Hayvi Bouzo: so you want to not go to anything that might, you know.
Hayvi Bouzo: scare away the people who don't agree with you already. Right? Because you're not trying to preach to the choir. You're trying to actually expand
Hayvi Bouzo: the audience. You're trying to expand the number of people who feel good and connect with your message. Right?
Hayvi Bouzo: So that's a very important.
Avi Melamed: Isaac or Sam any other questions about anything or any anybody else's project that
Avi Melamed: Haiti can be helpful, maybe in.
Jonah Rosen: I have a fast question. Hi, my name is Jonah. I just wanted to ask when it comes to finding raw data, what is the best source of information, because you've mentioned places where we can look at even content. That's created by people that lived under Hamas. But for me I always try to look for raw numbers, just numbers and data to present it to people. And I'm always worried that it might be not accurate.
Jonah Rosen: And the second thing is that I personally already create content with SSI. I've also created content when it comes to organizations such as Olami. I did a social media internship. So I would love to think about certain ideas that we could collaborate on, maybe even in the future. So I'll be very thankful if I could get any of your contact information any way I could contact you.
Hayvi Bouzo: Absolutely totally
Hayvi Bouzo: sounds great. And I, you know, if basically we can have that as a part of I mean, I'm happy to have Maya share my contact with you. I'm happy to help you guys in any way I can to even collab with you. I mean, we can discuss this.
Hayvi Bouzo: you know further, when you are like ready and want to, you know, put yourself out there. But in terms of statistics. Now, the problem with Arab countries is that this is a place where you know, given the fact that, like the governments, there are not, democratic
Hayvi Bouzo: people are afraid to share their opinions. There's all these, you know, so like it's harder to actually get. But there are like, for example, there is the Washington Institute
Hayvi Bouzo: for near Eastern Affairs. They have their own statistics, right? That they kind of have based on like they. They have a reach right in Arab countries like, if you're talking about Arabic, so you can utilize that. So Washington Institute. Look them up. They're like.
Hayvi Bouzo: look, I think that using AI is absolutely amazing. But you have to reconfirm. So, for example, you can. You know that anything you want to look up in Arabic, you can do it on Chatgpt right like you literally Chatgpt will look up for you. Everything in the Arabic language out there. But what you want to do with Chatgpt is confirm the accuracy, because sometimes chatgpt is not accurate.
Hayvi Bouzo: So you want to ask Chatgpt. Please look up the sources of what the numbers you gave me, and provide me with a number of sources that are confirming that same
Hayvi Bouzo: number, and sometimes we'll be like, Oh, I'm sorry I actually gave you this number, because it, you know, I wanted to give you an assessment, but it's not like word per word accurate, but when you ask it to actually get you the sources, it will bring you the sources. It will recheck the information, and it will be become accurate. So chatgpt is an amazing amazing tool
Hayvi Bouzo: that I've been using. And it's really excellent in Arabic. For example, if you're trying to get some things from the Middle East, and if you want to add things in the Arabic language, for example, on social media, like, the translation of Chatgbt is excellent.
Hayvi Bouzo: like, it's not. It's a lot more advanced from like Google, for example, you know. So yeah, utilize, utilize AI. It's amazing.
Jonah Rosen: Thank you. Thank you so much. Wait. So what would be the best.
Avi Melamed: Jonah. I'm sorry, Jonah. It's it's we have to. It's it's it's at the bottom of the hour. I need to be respectful to other people. I apologize. I just want to. So thank you for your questions. And if again, if you want to email your question, then happy to share it with Haiti.
Avi Melamed: So again to be respectful of your time.
Avi Melamed: I hope this was helpful again. I think some of you are really kind of thinking about what your project is going to be. So our goal today again, taking advantage of the fact that Avi has a briefing, was really to kind of, you know, help you think about it so, and Havi wanted to meet all of you as well, so that she can think about. Perhaps if there are other people. So please, you know. Think about your projects now.
Avi Melamed: None of you are expected to do the project only 5 weeks in. What we're trying to do is each session is supposed to give you kind of layers of knowledge so that you can think about. You can use the knowledge that you're gaining hopefully through these sessions. And again next week, we're going to be focusing on Iran one of a number of sessions focusing on
Avi Melamed: on from different perspectives. But the idea is that you're really building knowledge throughout the course. Also, speaking of Chat Gpt. Avi's constantly sending on the on the what's on the on the Whatsapp group.
Avi Melamed: you know articles in Arabic. Please dump them into chat. Gpt. Miranda did the 1st one. She translated it. But we're really trying to help you gain a knowledge base that will help you in your understanding of the region. So we hope so. We hope that you know
Avi Melamed: that you're beginning to percolate ideas and solidify your projects and hope. This ends heavy, as she said, one of our mentors,
Avi Melamed: and we really appreciate her time today. If any of you want to connect with her more personally, if this resonated with you, and what she's doing, resonate and think, be helpful in your project. Please let me know, and we can connect you directly. So are there any other questions to me not to heavy before we wrap up this again. Want to be respectful of everybody's time.
Avi Melamed: okay. You all know where to find me, and I find you. If you don't find me, so we'll be in touch throughout the week. Thank you so much for coming today. Please check out Habe's resource page on the portal, and we'll see you next week with Nagara, whose name I can't pronounce correctly.
Brooklyn Tory: I had a question for you personally, but it doesn't involve anyone else.
Avi Melamed: Okay. Well, I can stay on if you want. So it's fine.
Eli Ovits: Thank you.
Avi Melamed: Alright!
Aliya Zigman: Cute.
Brooklyn Tory: Thank you.
Avi Melamed: Thank you. Thank thank you.
Brooklyn Tory: My! I just wanted to know how it was going with the board. If there was any progress on.
Avi Melamed: So. Yes, so Didier, if you could stay on so. Yeah. So what happened was that I'm really trying to get Carl into the conversation, and he has been so overwhelmed. Jeff Blavitt, who I don't know if you met. He really wants to be a part of this, I said the Carl like, do you want to pass on this conversation? No, no, I really wouldn't be a part of the conversation, but he.
Brooklyn Tory: I want Carl to be a part of it, too.
Avi Melamed: Yeah. Yeah. So he's been my, I haven't forgotten you. And I've been trying to to bug him. So if that's important to you, I'm gonna reemphasize to him. I sent the email
Avi Melamed: and he didn't answer, and I gave him a pass. Then I followed up. And then I'm like, do you want to pass on this conversation? No, I really. But I will emphasize to him how important it is that you really wanted to be a part of the conversation. By the way, we have already one or 2 people like we already know, from like a mentor perspective already have 2 2 or 3 people in mind
Avi Melamed: that can help you with. So I've already gone one step further in identifying people can help with the Evaluation Survey development. But.
Brooklyn Tory: That's what I was. That's the second thing I was gonna ask, are any of them directly involved in an academic institution? Because I would like to have it done entirely, properly, with like Irb approval, and everything. I would like to make sure that, like everything, is ethically
Brooklyn Tory: perfect. So if any. Any of them are
Brooklyn Tory: involved in an academic institution, and could have it go through their irb process. That would be super helpful, so that we don't need to have an Independent Review Board done.
Avi Melamed: Okay. I don't know, because that's the 1st I'm I'm not. I don't know. I mean, there are 3 people that we know that. That do this kind of work. I don't know what their certifications are, as far as academic, but it's definitely something. So what? What? I have a dumb question, What is Irb.
Brooklyn Tory: Oh, sorry I internal review board. I just so. I don't know if I want to. Ultimately like right now, I'm not thinking I want to like, publish these results more thoroughly. But I, in case I have any interesting results that do seem worthwhile to publish.
Brooklyn Tory: I want to make sure that it has a stamp of approval by an ethics board. And so the way that that works is it's either done through an academic institution, usually for free, because it's a it's not done through. An it's like for that academic institution. But there are.
Brooklyn Tory: There are independent
Brooklyn Tory: like companies that you can hire to sort of do that same thing that I I could go through. But I
Brooklyn Tory: it it's just. It's expensive, and so I don't know if I like.
Brooklyn Tory: Like, it's not necessary for me to do that, because right now I'm not thinking about publishing. But if I ever want to use these this data more properly. Then just
Brooklyn Tory: just like a then just like directly with you and it and me. Then
Brooklyn Tory: an ethics approval is something I really need.
Avi Melamed: Okay. So look again. I mean in full candor. We're not going to be able, you know, to hire a firm. So you know we're all the mentors are, you know, we're paying. Just so you, this is, this is inside baseball. But you know, we began this fellowship without even fundraising for it as you and I have corresponded. And so the we're paying
Avi Melamed: the mentor like the educators that are doing the sessions. Them we're paying. We're not paying the mentors just because we don't have that kind of resources. So we don't have the resources to pay a firm to do this. But we can see through our network
Avi Melamed: what kind of what kind of
Avi Melamed: what kind of credentials? They have. So again, that sounds like a Carl question, because he comes from the the legal world. So I will nudge him again after this and say, look, we just had a session, and Brooklyn really wants you to be a part of this conversation, so let's set it up this week.
Brooklyn Tory: Ultimately, it's like I I do have. I do have connections at Mcgill. I do have connections at Northeastern. So if you find a mentor or an advisor who's really who seems like really good for my project, and is really
Brooklyn Tory: what's the word I'm looking for really seems really engaged
Brooklyn Tory: that that is perfect, even if they don't have that sort of academic title. But it it's just it. It might be a bit more challenging, and take a bit more time on my end.
Avi Melamed: Okay. So look, I think let's let me nudge Carl and say, Look, Brooklyn really wants you to be a part of this conversation. Can we set it up? And as soon as I get the Yes from him we'll start an email. So. But I did not. I did not leave it. I've been trying. It's just he's been kind of swamped with a million.
Brooklyn Tory: That's all. Okay.
Avi Melamed: But I can tell him it comes from you, and it's not really me nudging. It's you. So that's a better thing. So I will do that today, I promise.
Avi Melamed: My, if I may, this process that you're looking for certification. It's something that is
Avi Melamed: like 100% pure American, or it's international process, because maybe.
Brooklyn Tory: So it's an international process. It's for any kind of any kind of human subjects research. So if you want to have
Brooklyn Tory: any sort of any research published in any major
Brooklyn Tory: like journal. It has to have it. It pretty much always has to have. An ethics
Brooklyn Tory: board overseeing any kind of human subjects research. So this would be considered human subject subjects research. Because I'm
Brooklyn Tory: surveying students.
Avi Melamed: Do you want me to ask in the university, or
Avi Melamed: where I work? If they have cause they're always looking for collaboration. Maybe I could get a contact.
Brooklyn Tory: Oh, if you have a if you work at a university, and you could like
Brooklyn Tory: act as a sponsor in that way to have it go through there that that could also be great.
Avi Melamed: Because I I don't know yet I I need to have a specific description of the type of person, or at least accreditation or or process. Then I could ask around to see who is the correct person.
Avi Melamed: But I'm in Israel. So you know.
Avi Melamed: maybe I didn't understand. Brooklyn, are you? You're not talking about? Then the accreditate accreditation
Avi Melamed: of the person. You're saying that in order for it to have the irb.
Avi Melamed: it has to be connected with an academic institution. Is that what you're saying? Got it? Okay.
Avi Melamed: So in other words.
Avi Melamed: explain to me this a little bit more. So what does that mean? Because I thought you meant they needed some kind of accreditation, but none of the people that we're talking to come from Academia. These are all independent firms that do. This is what they do. They build surveys for analysis.
Brooklyn Tory: Then they might also have a. They might also have an an internal ethics already set up for that firm even, but
Brooklyn Tory: at least from like, if I were doing this at Mcgill with a with a professor I like, if I were doing this at Mcgill I would need, because I'm an undergrad. I would need a professor to sponsor my research. So they put their name on it and say.
Brooklyn Tory: I am like advising this person, and they submit it to Mcgill on my behalf, and Mcgill has a committee of people who sit down
Brooklyn Tory: about once a month and they review a massive research proposal. So I say, like
Brooklyn Tory: what I'm doing, the purpose, what? How? I how I expect to analyze the data, how I expect to write up the discussion, what I expect the results to be, how I expect to maintain confidentiality, the data, how long I expect to keep that information, for where I expect to publish like I need to. I say everything, and then they do a.
Brooklyn Tory: They sit down as a committee, they review it, and they say, Yes, this looks safe to perform.
Brooklyn Tory: And they give like they like sign off on it. Basically.
Avi Melamed: Now it sounds like a long process.
Avi Melamed: The guidelines. Yeah.
Brooklyn Tory: It is. But it's a it's a, it's, it's a. It's a requirement for any kind of academic research.
Avi Melamed: Why don't you ask the new tool of Openai deep search to provide you with samples of the protocol of the step by step. Protocol. If you want to nail a perfect first.st
Avi Melamed: But I think first, st we have to find okay. So I hear what you're saying. So I definitely think
Avi Melamed: that so we we it seems like we really do need in order to do it, the way you want it really does need to be some kind of of approval by an academic institution. I just don't know if that's possible within the time frame, unless you're going to do it longer and make it a longer project. So I think
Avi Melamed: Didier, why don't we do this? Why don't we really set a time with Carl? Hopefully, we'll do it a time that you can also be on the call, and you can hearing the same thing, and maybe you know you could do it through your university. But let's set the cause. You're getting into a you know, it's it's another level that that I did, that that we need to think about. And maybe.
Avi Melamed: The way the way it work here, at least in Haifa, is that every month we we call we get a list of what they call call
Avi Melamed: that. Actually, they make a call for project with specific topic, and then they already provide you with the protocol to just streamline the process of being sure that the submission will pass faster because there is budget and things involved, but it in the Academia. It's kind of a well old machine for this once you're inside this protocol that you have to. It's like, when you write a patent you have like a list of things. That's the way to write it. That's the way to submit it. That's the way to work
Avi Melamed: after it's your topic, your subject, your research. But the way to get from a to tough or a to Z is being
Avi Melamed: controlled and checked for quality. So it's like a quality standard of intellectual things.
Brooklyn Tory: And it's not. It's like, if it 1st of all, I I was expecting it to take a bit longer. I was expecting my project to go beyond
Brooklyn Tory: like May. I was expecting it to continue on a bit longer. If that's okay with you.
Avi Melamed: Yeah. Totally.
Brooklyn Tory: But
Avi Melamed: I'm thinking out loud.
Brooklyn Tory: Not necessary for me. It's just if I'm putting in this amount of work I want to, in case there is something really interesting in my results. I want to be able to
Brooklyn Tory: use it and improve and improve the academic sphere. You know, of understanding.
Avi Melamed: Okay, look, I mean one of the things I'm thinking and reason that Carl's more critical to this is because he has a number of friends. He has 2 very, very close friends who are professors at Columbia
Avi Melamed: like best best friends of his. He knows. That's so. That's why, you know, if we, if we do want to go that, and I'll think about it too, like who are the
Avi Melamed: May, and maybe other members of our board also. So again, I don't know the ins and outs. It sounds like with Didier saying that it in Haifa, specifically, it could be a very simple process. I don't know. I have no idea how it works in other academic institutions, and I think that we could definitely check. So I will.
Avi Melamed: This is important. And now I I understand also, like the the kind of different layers. So let me nudge Carl again like.
Brooklyn Tory: The other thing is, I think it's just important for it and me, so that in case.
Avi Melamed: Great.
Brooklyn Tory: Because I like, because I am. Can I am associated with you? You. Your organization needs to have needs to be protected against any kind of lawsuits in case like I mess up something, and
Brooklyn Tory: there's a complaint from a participant over some kind of like. Their information is leaked. They get discriminated against for their their involvement in my study.
Brooklyn Tory: If that happens, it's important for an ethics Review to be there so that there is no fallback on you legally.
Avi Melamed: Right. No, I I thank you. Thank you for thank you for.
Brooklyn Tory: Ty, I wanted to ask, which university are you at.
Avi Melamed: I'm at University of Haifa.
Brooklyn Tory: Okay, I will. I will look up there.
Avi Melamed: Yeah, because I was in meetings with
Avi Melamed: doctors and say, like, I have a Phd, if we want, I just they like, they say I put the request under my name, and then we'll make it work. So you need to have kind of someone with a Phd. That I'm vouching for this, then you confirm the process.
Brooklyn Tory: Exactly.
Avi Melamed: We can. We can have a claim for budget for time, resources, and stuff. But you always need to have that person that is willing to put
Avi Melamed: then his name like vouching for you and and and then usually after that, they have like. That's why, when you work with universities, they have. All of this legal protocol in place is automatic stuff that the way you're gonna work they don't ask you. They tell you that's the way you're gonna work it like. That's the way we work here. And then, you know, they they review. And before submission.
Avi Melamed: it just might be easier if you do it in the Us.
Brooklyn Tory: That that's all like I. Technically, I could do it in Canada. But Mcgill, like Mcgill's protocol, compared to like, say, if you mentioned Colombia, or like Northeastern or any any of the sort of like
Brooklyn Tory: smaller, definitely private American universities are just like so much simpler because Mcgill, the bureaucracy, is insane, and their protocols are like
Brooklyn Tory: ridiculous compared to other universities, and I presume Israel is pretty similar in that regard.
Avi Melamed: I don't know. I need to check. I need to check. But
Avi Melamed: what would be the topic of your research.
Brooklyn Tory: It will be it will be sort of
Brooklyn Tory: understanding student bias in in Middle Eastern politics and discussion to make sure that
Brooklyn Tory: give itme a better understanding of where students are coming from when they're not going. Anything that itme needs to. Specifically, Avi needs to specifically try to refute or better, prepare for in advance.
Avi Melamed: Okay? And yeah, I understand that if you invest that amount of work interviewing hundreds of students, if not more, that it could be applied for for advanced studies.
Avi Melamed: yeah. Yeah. So the
Avi Melamed: because the 1st step could be just to have like legal advice, to be sure that the protocol, you know, everything is foolproof.
Avi Melamed: hey, Daddy? And
Avi Melamed: And and then after that, yeah, so so I write a synopsis, if you if you can, of of a few lines. Yeah.
Avi Melamed: I think that me I don't. I'm not a I'm an obvious computer. I think that she wrote in the in, the, in the the project, the the the excel that I shared
Avi Melamed: with that with you?
Avi Melamed: Maybe.
Avi Melamed: It's I don't. I don't know. I don't remember. I don't have my computer in front of me. I don't remember. Do you have that available real quick. You could look at it and see.
Brooklyn Tory: Well, I gave a brief synopsis, but.
Avi Melamed: Yeah.
Brooklyn Tory: Ultimately that was what I thought was important. But I want to do this research for itme. So that that was why I really wanted to discuss with Carl other people, just to make sure that what I'm doing accurately corresponds to what they think is important as well.
Avi Melamed: Thanks.
Brooklyn Tory: So.
Avi Melamed: Yeah.
Avi Melamed: That that's a that's a critical topic, because
Avi Melamed: understanding better or like where the students are standing right now, could would really actually help us better, and feel and and adjust our our messaging, and to be sure that we provide the answers, or the tools, or or the the you know the method, the skills to.
Avi Melamed: Yeah.
Avi Melamed: So they then achieve their goal.
Avi Melamed: Yeah, there is quite a paragraph. I found the file.
Avi Melamed: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brooklyn Tory: So it's it's definitely humanity's sort of it's in between, like social studies.
Brooklyn Tory: history, political science, and psychology. I'm specifically in psychology. So like my, my bias is towards psychology, but definitely sort of on the border of
Brooklyn Tory: international relations.
Brooklyn Tory: Yeah.
Avi Melamed: So I I what I would, maybe what I would see is like in order maybe not to delay or or to stall. Your process is
Avi Melamed: is just to to try just to get
Avi Melamed: kind of the recipe or the you know how you should work with or without. But if at 1 point you want to apply, you know that you already worked the correct way. Yeah. And instead of having to reverse engineer all the the steps.
Avi Melamed: and with or without official approval from a Phd holding person. Because if that takes one month to get, and during that month you're stuck, it's kind of a shame. Maybe we can just get legal advice, to be sure that you have a good disclaimer. And you know, Nda, and
Avi Melamed: That's what that. Yeah, that's why I think also, Carl needs to be a part of this conversation.
Avi Melamed: Because that's what I would do when we start with startups with patents, we just sign on an nda. Then we start the process, and at least we get the ball rolling and just having the person, and being reassured that they can just walk freely without having you know
Avi Melamed: the feeling of making a mistake or taking a risk.
Brooklyn Tory: It doesn't need an nda, because ndas are typically for if we were not giving sensitive information to them, whereas they they are free to choose whether they want to share this information or not. It's
Brooklyn Tory: so like an an nda specifically isn't necessary, but a disclaimer.
Avi Melamed: Yeah, yeah, I agree with you that you know in the in your case, it's not an nda. It's more like.
Avi Melamed: yeah, like a binding contract stating exactly what you're gonna do with what you learn, what they do is their problem. But at least how you know how long the data will be storage. In what forms? How are you gonna use it? Are you allowed to share it externally?
Brooklyn Tory: In my world. It's called an informed consent.
Avi Melamed: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And
Avi Melamed: because usually when you work with someone like you want to interview someone, and they are not willing to sign these these basic forms, then you should move on, because that's already the seed of problems.
Brooklyn Tory: I'm not. I'm not actually the way I'm planning on doing this is through social media, especially like Facebook groups, reddit etc. through the fellows. So my process would be a survey format. That's entirely online, just like 10 min of people's time. And the informed consent would be on the 1st page they click a button, and then they go straight into it. So if they pass that 1st page, they agree to the informed consent.
Brooklyn Tory: and so there's no there's no need for like back and forth on that. Or if they're like official like seeing me sending, telling them and back and forth, that that's not necessarily because I'm not doing like a formal interview process.
Avi Melamed: Okay. Actually, that could be an interesting bridge to. If there is another fellow that want to make a podcast then he thought of the interviews become this.
Avi Melamed: Is somewhat.
Brooklyn Tory: Someone. Yeah, if so.
Brooklyn Tory: one wants to connect with me. And they want like deeper. I I can like set up an extra thing after like, if you are willing to like, be reached out to and like, discuss further with someone. Specifically, I could add that in definitely.
Avi Melamed: That would be a really cool topic for a podcast having students speaking to students about where they get their data and and stuff, having 2 people sharing, because the fact that you will have this empathy connection that we share the same issue that we don't know from where the what we discussed today like, Can I trust this? Where do you go? Where do you read that? You have this kind of live reviewing of things? It could be like one stone, 2 bills.
Avi Melamed: I think it's Isaac, or it's 1 of the oh, no, it's I think it's Jason that wants to do a podcast.
Brooklyn Tory: But whoever is doing that sort of thing. If they wanted to work with me, they'd have to understand that it will be a longer process, because they would have to wait until I'm expecting it would probably be around June by the time we get around to like.
Avi Melamed: Right analyzing results.
Avi Melamed: Okay.
Brooklyn Tory: Especially since I'm so March 12th I'm having a surgery, and then I'll be out for like 3 weeks.
Avi Melamed: Oh!
Brooklyn Tory: So I like March to April. I will be like doing nothing. I will be
Brooklyn Tory: coming every hopefully, coming every Sunday with my like computer off the 1st week. I'll probably still be in the hospital like zoned out of my mind on morphine. But
Brooklyn Tory: 1st of all, I hope you're gonna be okay. I hope it.
Brooklyn Tory: Thank you.
Avi Melamed: Wow! Every I feel like this is like the group Jason, who's still on here. I don't know if he thinks he's off. He he had. He has back issues, and Matt broke his arm. And you're having surgery. I feel like this is like you all. You're young. But hopefully you're getting. You're getting the issues out when you're young, and then you'll, you know, move on and healthier after. So thank you for letting us know about that. And you know, most important thing is that
Avi Melamed: you're healthy. So you're because you're an amazing young woman. So.
Brooklyn Tory: You.
Avi Melamed: So I'm.
Avi Melamed: 100 until a hundred 20, as they say. Hello! 100 and 20 of sound body, mind, and soul.
Brooklyn Tory: Swipe.
Avi Melamed: So maybe next week next week we do have time to do the breaking rooms.
Avi Melamed: Yes.
Avi Melamed: So maybe we could put Brooklyn. And you, said Jason in as an idea of a.
Avi Melamed: Jason, who just logged off. Yeah, I think it's him that wants to do the podcast
Avi Melamed: or it's Jason or Isaac. I can't remember.
Avi Melamed: So if you want, we can just put the 3, 4 of you you know, in the same bike room, and you could discuss the Id to see. Maybe they like it didn't like it, you know, but at least
Avi Melamed: to get a taste of it.
Avi Melamed: Yeah.
Avi Melamed: Because this way you could get some part of the interviews recorded.
Avi Melamed: and and for them they could get easy seed of a candidate.
Avi Melamed: So
Avi Melamed: alright. Okay, I'm gonna run because I have to. I want to catch some of Avi's speech. So at least I can take some pictures for speaking of social media. So, Brooklyn, thank you so much. Really.
Brooklyn Tory: Thank you.
Avi Melamed: Rock Star. I will nudge Carl and Didier, you and I will be in touch. I'll I'm gonna probably send you a voice note as I'm walking over to the auditorium, so.
Avi Melamed: If not tomorrow evening. We can touch base as well.
Avi Melamed: Alright. Okay. Thanks.
Brooklyn Tory: Thank you. Didier and Maya.
Avi Melamed: Good evening.
Avi Melamed: Thanks, bye, bye.
Brooklyn Tory: Bye.
Avi Melamed: Take care bye.