GOP Politicians Call for TikTok Ban Over Pro-Palestine Content Outperforming Pro-Israel Content

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Oct. 31, 2023

AIPAC-backed Republican lawmakers are calling for TikTok to be banned due to pro-Palestine content outperforming pro-Israel content on the platform.

"There have been nearly four times the number of views to TikTok posts using the hashtag #StandwithPalestine globally compared to posts using the hashtag #StandwithIsrael in the past two weeks, according to data from TikTok's creator center," Axios reported on Tuesday.

🇵🇸🇮🇱 A trend has swept TikTok where Israeli’s mock the appearance of Palestinians, the fact they have no electricity and some even compare them to dogs.

Many of these videos also show parents making their kids take part in the trend. pic.twitter.com/5arRADPIQl
— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) October 26, 2023

"Globally, there have been 210,000 posts using the hashtag #StandwithPalestine and 17,000 using the hashtag #StandwithIsrael since October 16," Axios continued. "In the U.S., there have been 8,000 posts using the hashtag #StandwithPalestine in the past two weeks compared to 3,000 posts using the hashtag #StandwithIsrael in that time."

As bombs rain on Palestinians in Gaza, Israelis like Eve Cohen have taken to TikTok in Arab face to claim Palestinian mothers are faking their deaths. pic.twitter.com/DIYICk9Y3o
— Rafael Shimunov (@rafaelshimunov) October 22, 2023

Israel is losing the propaganda war on TikTok despite allegedly offering to pay influencers thousands of dollars to share pro-Israel propaganda with their followers.

Israel offers an influencer $5,000 to post a propaganda video to his 3 million TikTok followers

He says no amount of money can get him to do that and shouts “Free Palestine!” at the end of the video pic.twitter.com/VnjgfbXYUc
— Remi Kanazi (@Remroum) October 25, 2023

Republicans have responded to the news by calling for TikTok to be banned.

Republicans renew calls for TikTok ban as anti-Israel posts dominate app https://t.co/OHH5CXdvQ8 pic.twitter.com/Mu9vwaU9Hm
— New York Post (@nypost) October 31, 2023

"[Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.)] told the Post that it 'would not be surprising that the Chinese-owned TikTok is pushing pro-Hamas content' to serve China's agenda," the New York Post reported on Tuesday night.

"The CCP benefits by destabilizing the Middle East and pushing the United States to put more manpower back into the region," Blackburn said. "The United States needs to ban this app that steals and spies on American users."

[Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.)], who serves as chair of the House Select Committee on China, told The Post that TikTok "has become ground zero for disinformation and pro-Hamas propaganda" -- and warned TikTok parent ByteDance's ties to Beijing have made it difficult to separate organic viral trends from China-backed bots or influence campaigns.

"We have zero visibility into whether the viral nature of this content is the result of user engagement, bot campaigns, or the CCP's covert influence," Gallagher said in a statement. "All of this illustrates the fundamental problem with TikTok: it is an avenue for the CCP to covertly inject any message it wants -- particularly during a crisis -- into the American bloodstream. We must act now to ban it."

[Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.)] noted that he has "been warning that Communist China is capable of using TikTok's algorithm to manipulate and influence Americans" for "quite some time."

"We've seen TikTok used to downplay the Uyghur genocide, the status of Taiwan, and now Hamas terrorism; This is further proof that the app needs to be banned and treated for what it is: foreign propaganda," Rubio said in a statement.

The Democrats blamed all their problems on Russian bots and now the GOP is blaming all their/Israel's problems on Chinese CCP bots.

The GOP has spent years at this point lamenting internet censorship of right-wingers, cancel culture and wokeism but since Israel's war with Gaza broke out they've embraced every aspect of the "woke" agenda to shill for Israel and silence their critics.

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