TikTok Driving Young Americans To Root ‘For Terrorists,’ GOP Lawmaker Says | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the The Daily Wire. The author of this post is Tim Pearce.

    The Chinese-owned social media platform TikTok is propagandizing young Americans to back terrorists against Israel, according to Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI).

    Gallagher, who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, said in a video posted Saturday that TikTok "is perhaps the largest-scale malign influence operation ever conducted." The Wisconsin Republican said the platform is in large part responsible for anti-Israel attitudes among young Americans.

    Gallagher cited a Harvard CAPS-Harris poll from last month that showed 51% of Americans between the ages of 18 and 24 believe that Hamas' October 7 terror attack on Israel "can be justified by the grievance of Palestinians," according to the poll.

    "How do we reach a point where a majority of young Americans hold such a morally bankrupt view of the world? Where many young Americans were rooting for terrorists who kidnapped American citizens and against a key American ally, our closest ally in the Middle East?" Gallagher asked.

    The answer is TikTok, he said. The social media app is run by its parent company, Bytedance, a Chinese tech company. Republicans and Democrats have accused TikTok of being a Chinese propaganda outfit. Multiple state governments have banned the app over security concerns.

    "TikTok's parent company, Bytedance, is Chinese, and in China there is no such thing as a private company. We know for a fact that the CCP uses TikTok to push its propaganda and censor views that diverge from the party line," Gallagher said.

    Numerous reports have found TikTok censoring and suppressing content about Xinjiang, Tibet, Tiananmen Square, and other issues sensitive to the CCP. TikTok has also suppressed content about LGBT issues, and even temporarily blocked a teenage American Muslim activist who criticized the CCP's treatment of Uyghur Muslims," Gallagher said. "If you doubt that the CCP would introduce anti-Semitic or anti-Western bias into apps under its de facto control, consider that on October 31st, The Wall Street Journal reported that Chinese web platforms Baidu and Alibaba have wiped Israel off the map."


    The Wisconsin representative compared TikTok's impact on America to "if, in 1962, right before the Cuban Missile Crisis, we had allowed Pravda and the KGB to purchase The New York Times, The Washington Post, ABC, and NBC."

    "It's time to ban TikTok, or at least force the sale to an American company. The clock is ticking," Gallagher said.

poll#212

A majority of Americans still believe in OUR 1st Amendment guaranteed Freedom of Speech; however, at what bold point does the constitutional right to Free Speech becomes unabashed anti-Semitic Hate Speech, and while it should possibly be tolerated on our college campuses, and on the streets of mostly Sanctuary Cities, these events should be rightfully observed and scrupulously monitored ... or, not? What is your true opinion of when too much of enough is just too much, or not?

  The answer to Free Speech I don't agree with is more, and incredibly robust Free Speech.

  There is a point when Free Speech becomes counter productive to sustaining a peaceful society.

  Free Speech should only be tolerated if it represents the status quo of the highly educated orthodoxy.

  Early in life, I learned to speak only when I am spoken to.

218 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?

poll#128

Where do you stand on the wanton censorship by Big Tech Platforms, while retaining their Section 230 carveout indemnifying them for Slander /Defamation lawsuits and Copyright infringements?

  Big Tech Platforms have the right to Censor all speech providing they voluntarily relinquish their Section 230 Carveout.

  Big Tech Platforms DO NOT have the right to Censor any speech, while retaining multiple indemnifications by virtue of the Section 230 Carveout.

  I know nothing of this 230 talk, but "I do love me some social media".

476 total vote(s)     What's your Opinion?