TikTok Ban: Was the US trying to silence pro-Palestinian content?

And as of

today, TikTok

is back. Couldpro-Palestinecontent on

TikTok be afactor in theproposed

TikTok ban?Typically, theIsraelis are

good at PR. What'shappened here?

How have they,how have they

and we been soineffective at

communicatingthe the

realitiesthere and ourour point ofview?On

Sunday. A newUS law banningTikTok came

into effectfor around 12hours, with

this messageshowing up. The move was

reportedlyover concernsfor user

privacy andnationalsecurity. Ifyou look at

the postingson TikTok andthe number of

mentions ofPalestiniansrelative to

other socialmedia sites,it'soverwhelmingly

so amongTikTok.

Broadcast. SoI'd I'd knowthat's of a

real interestand thepresident will

get the chanceto to makeaction in that

regard. SomeUS politicianshave said that

the appspreads antiIsrael

propaganda. When you have

Hamas, Iran,China

endorsingtheseprotests, it

speaks volumesto theabsurdity of

them. It alsohighlights

exactly why weincluded the

TikTok bill inthe foreignsupplemental

aid package,because you'reseeing how

these kids arebeing

manipulated by

certain groupsor entities or

countries. CongressmanMike Lawler,

together withformerRepresentative

Mike Gallar,introduced theProtecting

Americans fromForeignAdversaryControlled

ApplicationsAct. Whichincludes the

TikTok ban. Galler wrotean article

called Why DoYoungAmericansSupport Hamas?

Look atTikTok, whileMike Lawler

described thepro Palestinecampus

protests asmotivated by,

quote, outsidepaid agitators

and activists. And theyaren't the

only ones. Nikki Haley, aformer

presidentialcandidate whosigned an

Israeli bombwith. Finishedthem, declared

that simply bywatchingTikTok, users

could becomeanti-Semitic. Well, I will

be the firstone to sayAmericansshould not

weigh in onwho is thehead ofIsrael. We

just need tosupport Israelregardless of

who the headis. Many ofthesepoliticians

that areagainst TikTokreceivesignificant

donations frompro Israel

lobbyinggroups. AIPACis the

AmericanIsrael PublicAffairs

Committee. Andthey didn't

start out as aPAC in in thesense of a

politicalactioncommittee, butnow they have

a politicalactioncommittee.

Ostensibly,it's a group

of Americanswho lobby onbehalf of

Israel. PAC isone of the twomost powerful

lobbies in theUnited Statesfor every 30

minutes thatsomeonewatches TikTok

every day. They become

17% moreanti-Semitic,

more pro Hamasbased on doingthat. One of

the biggestbackers of theTikTok ban is

the JewishFederations ofNorth America.

They'vepraised themove, accusingTikTok of

spreadinganti-Semiticcontent. This

is the samegroup that hasdismissed

reports byAmnesty onIsrael'sapartheid

practices anddonatedmillions to

organizationslike Zaka, thegroup who is

behind thefalse claimsof. Beheaded

babies. Inresponse,TikTokreleased a

statementpointing outthat allanti-Semitic

and Holocaustdenial contentis immediately

removed whenflagged. Itgets evenstranger.

Anti-Semiticcontent hasskyrocketed on

X since ElonMusk'stakeover. In

fact, ElonMusk himselfhas faced

criticism forappearing topromote

anti-Semiticcontent. Yetthere's no

movement toban X. We'rehearing

reports out ofBloomberg thatElon Musk.

Might buyTikTok. Mehrahas beenaccused of

silencingPalestinianvoices for

years. Most ofmy content, my

stories and myposts are

being removed,activelyremoved from

Instagram. Reports fromHamleh, the

Arab Centerfor SocialMediaAdvancement,

revealdevastatingimpacts onPalestinian

influencersandjournalists. Postssupporting

Palestine areoften shadowbanned, with

creatorssaying they'vebeen affected.

by the techgiant'sdiscriminatory

practices, aclaim Metadenies.

Pro-Palestinecontent isn'tunique to

TikTok. According toStatista,

Instagram had6 millionposts with

#FreePalestineon November

7th, 2023, and

230,000 withhashtag

#StandWithIsrael. So why target

TikTok?BanningTikTok won'tnecessarily

silencepro-Palestinianvoices, but it

does raise thequestion, whodecides what

voices gethurt?