Meanwhile, on TikTok, young Americans were proclaiming their undying devotion to terrorist, Jew hater, and enemy of the United States Osama bin Laden. Yes, that's the guy who hated America so much that he turned four of our commercial airliners into bombs and murdered more than 3,000 civilians.
Yet, as IBM, Disney and others vowed, breathlessly, to pull their ads from Twitter, they left their ads up on TikTok. On the same day that I read a study showing that not only does TikTok contain antisemitism, but it promotes it, I saw a Disney ad on that platform.
Disney pulled its ads from Twitter after dubious allegations of antisemitism and left them up on a site that drives antisemitism on social media.
A study, out from Generation Lab, shows that using TikTok for even a half hour each day actually increases the chance of not just seeing, but holding views that are antisemitic. It's actually a 17 percent increase, per data scientist Anthony Goldbloom. This is far higher than on other social media platforms.
"TikTok users are more likely to believe Jewish people are dishonest in business, are disloyal to America, and have too much power in the media," Goldbloom said. They also "are also more likely to disagree that Israel has a right to defend itself against those who want to destroy it."
TikTok, owned by CCP-affiliated ByteDance, is a "dangerous environment to Jews," he said.
Just some scrolling through the app since October 7 is enough to make this at least anecdotally clear. There are the obvious glaring red flags, such as the multiple videos praising a known terrorist and antisemite, but there are also plenty of videos of people declaring that "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." Sounds cozy and progressive, but the underlying meaning is that Israel and all Israelis (read: Jews) should be eradicated to make way for Islamic extremists and their repressive form of government.
TikTok isn't a news site—neither is X, for that matter—but young Americans repeatedly say that they actually get their news from the site. This may be why The News Movement launched a channel on TikTok, which they used to go after Rumble's advertisers after the free speech-oriented streaming site refused to deplatform Russell Brand, despite anonymous allegations of past sexual misdeeds.
Goldbloom started looking into TikTok after the accusations of antisemitism were hurled at Musk. The strangest part, however, about the accusations were that they come from the same people who demand, essentially, that Israel back off in their war against Hamas. They only care about antisemitism when they can use it as a smear against free speech. It's not just Elon Musk and his sometimes controversial views that these accusers have a problem with, it's the very idea that there could be a free speech site that is not subject to the nefarious whims of corporate and government censors.
He found that, while survey data shows that 18-24 year olds are basically split 50-50 on the Israel issue, using TikTok as a mirror would indicate that the same demographic is 98 percent opposed to Israel. He also found that "spending 30 minutes or more a day on TikTok led to a 20 percent increase in antisemitic views and then a 12 percent increase in the likelihood of holding anti-Israel views."
Lawmakers and advertisers are coming for X, not TikTok. But data shows that it's TikTok, not X, that is the festering pool of antisemitism and hate. We have not seen an outpouring of anger at TikTok, but lawmakers, self-identified media watchdogs, censors, and corporate shills are all gunning to take X down. Their anger is entirely misplaced.
After the J6 riot at the Capitol in 2021, it was widely surmised that social media app Parler was to blame, and assumed that this was the place the J6ers had planned their attendance in DC.
The app was built for a conservative audience, one that was tired of being censored and suppressed on Facebook and Twitter, one that wanted to proclaim love of country without being called racist, one that was skeptical over Covid mandates without being called grandma killers, and one that expressed concerns about media manipulation and Big Tech censorship without being censored by the very entities they were criticizing.
In a knee-jerk response by virtually everyone—Apple and Android app stores, Amazon servers, and Democrat politicians, Parler was scuttled. It was pulled from app stores, ripped from servers, and chucked into the dust heap of failed tech enterprises.
There was only one problem: the planning didn't take place on Parler. After the damage was done, it was revealed that most of the planning to attend Trump's rally at the ellipse, to meet up in DC, was planned on Facebook. It wasn't Parler. The J6 rally attendees had, for the most part, not happened upon that new app. Instead they were on Facebook. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was never questioned by pearl-clutching Democrat lawmakers, instead he skated on by and Parler took the hit.
The emergence of X as a free speech platform only came after the censorship, suppression, and bias "misinformation" and "disinformation" reporting were exposed. It was only after it was revealed that Americans' free speech was being violated by the previous owners of the app that any lawmakers or corporate reps even started to pay attention to X. When they were able to control the app, they were fine with it. But as soon as it allowed Americans to speak freely, it was a problem. Just like Rumble, just like Parler.
Are we sensing a pattern yet? It's not antisemitism that bothers these big companies and advertisers—if it were, they'd be going after TikTok— it's Americans speaking freely and sharing their views uncensored that they have a problem with.
If they really hated antisemitism they would ban TikTok, just like Trump tried to do when he was in office. But they don't. Because they don’t hate antisemitism. They just hate you and your first amendment rights.
