Is the TikTok Ban about China — Or Is It Really About Gaza?
The Jewish Daily Forward reported that the government authorities leading the charge against TikTok, like Marco Rubio, Mike Gallagher and Mitt Romney, have stated that anti-Israel videos are a reason to ban TikTok. The Forward revealed that TikTok users were still seeing the pro-Israel videos proportionately more, indicating, if any bias, one toward pro-Israel content.
Candace Owens said that TikTok is being banned on behalf of Israel that controls the US government through aggressive lobbying.
Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the ADL, was featured in a leaked phone call about criticism of Israel and was recorded saying, “we have a major, major, major generational problem.” He added, “…we really have a TikTok problem, the Gen Z problem.”
.In November 2023, Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League (ADL), was featured in a leaked phone call about Israel’s war on Gaza and was recorded saying, “we have a major, major, major generational problem.” Greenblatt added, “…and so we really have a TikTok problem, the Gen Z problem.” He urged directing energy toward the younger generation and said, “the useful idiots in the West are falling in line in ways that are terrifying.”
Greenblatt’s leaked phone call:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/SzsQVWJo6PhK
Candace showed a clip of Amihay Chikli, the Minister for Diaspora Affairs and Combating Anti-Semitism, boasting that they were able to curb Americans’ free speech on college campuses and on TikTok.
Is the TikTok ban about China — or is it really about Gaza?
The Supreme Court is set to rule this week on whether or not to ban TikTok, the short-form video app. Those promoting the ban say it poses a national security threat and could allow the Chinese government to mine Americans’ data; ByteDance, which owns the app, is a Chinese company.
But many users on the platform think that’s a coverup. The real reason to ban TikTok, they say, is to suppress news about Gaza.
The consequences of a ban for TikTok users could be far-reaching — entire economic ecosystems have developed and influencers have built livelihoods on the platform. But most importantly, for many TikTokers, the app is their primary source of news. Particularly news they believe more mainstream media sources are hiding.
“Fascist countries ban apps and websites under the guise of threats to national security, when every other country knows it’s about suppressing the free speech of its citizens,” said one popular TikToker in a viral video about the ban, calling the app “the most popular news and media outlet that the government cannot control.”
Since Oct. 7, commentators and Jewish figures such as Sascha Baron Cohen have noted a strong bent toward pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli content on the platform; some lawmakers accused the app of purposefully biasing its algorithm to favor pro-Palestinian content as part of an anti-Israel agenda.
TikTok repeatedly denied endorsing an anti-Israel agenda, meeting with Jewish influencers, celebrities and organizations including the Anti-Defamation League to reassure them that the platform was not biased. The company pointed out that videos with the hashtag #standwithIsrael received more views than those tagged #freepalestine; though there are more of the latter, users were still seeing the pro-Israel videos proportionately more, indicating, if any bias, one toward pro-Israel content.
And analysts pointed out that support for the Palestinian cause, even before Oct. 7, was growing among the younger generations who make up the vast majority of TikTok’s user base — they argued that the app’s videos supporting Palestinians or criticizing Israel were likely an accurate reflection of the beliefs shared by the majority of users using the platform.
Nevertheless, even as early as fall 2023, largely Republican lawmakers referenced TikTok’s anti-Israel videos as a reason to ban TikTok in the U.S. “TikTok is a tool China uses to spread propaganda to Americans, now it’s being used to downplay Hamas terrorism,” wrote Sen. Marco Rubio on X in November 2023. (Rubio is now under consideration for Secretary of State in the Trump administration.)
Former house representative from Wisconsin, Mike Gallagher, wrote an article arguing that the app was “brainwashing our youth against the country and our allies” with “rampant pro-Hamas propaganda.”
And Mitt Romney drew a direct line between his support for the ban and pro-Palestinian content on TikTok. “Some wonder why there was such overwhelming support for us to shut down potentially TikTok or other entities of that nature,” he said at a forum in May, going on to allege that “the number of mentions of Palestinians” is far higher on TikTok “relative to other social media sites.”
But that’s not true; nearly every social media platform tilted toward “Free Palestine” content in the wake of Oct. 7. A study from The Washington Post in November 2023 found a similar proportion of pro-Palestine posts on Facebook and Instagram, yet no one is trying to ban Meta.
