There have been rumors that the US might ban TikTok in the past. Sens in the US proposed the Restrict Act in March. This law would give the president the power to shut down TikTok for national security reasons.
Due to the war between Israel and Gaza, this issue is once again being discussed and is now being looked at again. All over social media, especially on TikTok, violent material about the war and the racism that has come from it has not been filtered.
For every 30 minutes that people watch TikTok, Nikki Haley, the UN ambassador, said that they are “17% more antisemitic.” More in support of Hamas.
Young people are interested in the war itself and have been looking for more information about it and the US’s role in the Middle East.
Because of this, a lot of people thought the US supported violence and might have been to blame for letting the war get this far. Younger TikTok users even made videos about Osama Bin Laden in which they expressed support for his terrorist actions in relation to the newly found letter. In the end, TikTok took action by removing this kind of material.
Some people are complaining that TikTok is too much like other social media sites. “All of it is spyware,” said Dina Ibrahim, a professor of radio and computer arts. If you put X, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok on your phone, it is spyware, no matter if you are American or Chinese. That is all there is to it. Simple and pure.”
She went on, “They’re designed to spread false information.” People who read or watch them to get information are purposely shown things that support what they already believe.
Problems with the Israel war have been talked about on other social media sites, showing bias on the other side. The translation tool on Instagram put the word “terrorist” in the bios of Palestinian users, and when WhatsApp users were asked about Palestine, they were shown pictures of kids with guns. These are just a few ways that social media is making this fight worse.
A lot of people are saying that TikTok isn’t held to the same rules about free speech and censoring as other social media sites. As a result of the release of the Twitter Files, it was proven that platform X, which used to be Twitter, was working with the US government to hide, improve, or delete certain material.
This makes a lot of lawmakers and platform users suspicious about the real goals behind any kind of content blocking or censorship.
