If you asked me before October last year, I would have callously approved any ban of TikTok. Back then the social media app was a really annoying intrusion on ones personal space, especially if one was forced to share a room (or any confined space for that matter) for any length of time with a bunch of Gen Z’ers, fixated almost entirely on their cellphones
TikTok is admittedly still an irritation, but since the abysmal capitulation of Mainstream Media to sordid and vested interests, it has found new value (in my estimation at least) as an alternative source of news. However, as with other alternative news sources like Facebook and Twitter (I’m still loathe to call it X), I view everything posted with a great deal of skepticism, and follow a policy of mandatory fact checking whenever I come across TokTok content.
Since the huge bipartisan vote in Congress last week to ban TikTok unless it is sold to an approved Western buyer, its value as a media source has shot up prodigiously. I understand from the pundits who know these things, that it’s no mean feat to get the disturbingly polarized US lawmakers on either side of what is quite clearly a manufactured political chasm to agree on anything. It’s pretty obvious that TikTok terrifies either them or their sponsors, massively.
Anyone who has not suspended all credulity since the Hamas incursion into Israel on October 7th will have noticed how mainstream media has willfully manipulated its reporting in favor of the latter. The Israeli propaganda machine has been working tirelessly to spin, mislead and lie outrageously to convince the Western world that their genocidal response to the Hamas attacks is a God-given and justifiable right. A right to defense that should have lasted only for the duration of the attack, but mutated into a vindictive campaign of genocidal retribution. Western media has made very little effort to cover up their bias.
Fortunately TikTok has become one of the most frequently used social media apps by the perennially persecuted Palestinians to broadcast the tragic massacres and collective punishment being inflicted by the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) on them, mainly women and children. Alternatives like Facebook and Twitter, while still being used, are not trusted to disseminate the truth freely or fairly. With Mark Zuckerberg being dragged before Congress on several occasions, and Elon Musk bending the knee to the Zionist cult lobby, both Facebook’s and Twitter’s algorithms have been manipulated by them to mimic the diabolical bias adopted by mainstream media.
TikTok apparently threatens the outrageously false narrative that Western governments are spinning about their inhumane support for Israel and by extension, the unfolding genocide in Gaza. They obviously can’t be comfortable with the daily horrors of the IDF bombings, and war crimes being live-streamed out of Gaza on the social media app. TikTok not only undermines the misinformation, lies and propaganda of the Israeli government, but that of the mainstream media too. It’s no wonder telegraphed efforts exist to curb or eliminate its influence.
The US Congress vote to ban TikTok, did not materialize in a vacuum. It is being fed air by vested interest groups who have a lot to lose through its continued existence – especially if it remains under the control of entities who they can’t manipulate, like Musk and Zuckerberg. Just about the time of the vote, the Jewish lobby’s specific interest in seeing TikTok being decapitated was exposed on Twitter in leaked audio from the Anti Defamation League’s (ADL) Chief Executive, Jonathan Greenblatt.
We have a major, major generational problem. All the polling I’ve seen – ADL’s polling,, ICC’s polling, independent polling – suggests this is not a left/right gap, folks. The issue of United States support for Israel is not left and right, it is young and old, and the number of young people who think Hamas’ massacre was justified is terrifyingly high, and so we really have a TikTok problem, a gen-Z problem that our community needs to put the same brains that gave us Tagly, the same brains that gave us all these other amazing innovations, need to put our energy towards this, like fast, because we’ve been chasing this left/right divide. It’s the wrong game
One must concede that this leak on its own, is not conclusive evidence of the Jewish lobby’s intent to manipulate US politicians. Nevertheless, the ADL’s mention of it and the concomitant incitement to target it in specific ways, is pretty damning. Historically however, their influence over US politics and politicians is undeniable. While the recording appears to have been made late last year, it appears that the bipartisan motion to finally ban TikTok gained traction only recently, because as late as February 2024, Democrat President Joe Biden opened a TikTok account in a vain attempt to garner support from its main demographic, the younger generation.
Before I try to demonstrate the deviousness behind the US attempt to ban TikTok, a little history is necessary.
TikTok was founded, and launched in 2016 by Zhang Yiming, a former software engineer at Microsoft. It is owned by a Beijing based company called Bytedance. The TikTok app however is not used in China itself, as it is targeted at an international audience. It’s sister app used in China is called Douyin. TikTok has around 1.5 billion users worldwide, 170 million of whom are in the USA. It’s characteristic hook is user-generated short-form videos which has been demonstrably effective at attracting and enthralling a mostly young audience.
Several countries have already implemented outright bans on TikTok, while others have placed selective restrictions, mostly within their government agencies. The countries with outright bans include Afghanistan and Iran, hardly models of democracy. India has also banned it outright, but their democracy is rated one of the most corrupt. The US wants to be in the company of this lot?
The ludicrous assertion, therefore, that the ban is necessary to protect US citizen’s personal information from the Chinese government is quite clearly made up. It’s a cold-war era scare tactic that won’t wash anymore, at least not with those who still have their wits about them. The ban appears to be attractive to those who have crimes to conceal, notably war crimes. Just last month, the President of the USA thought it was just fine to have his personal information at risk of Chinese scraping, so the turnaround stinks of yet more gaslighting from the US administration.
It is unclear if the US Congress vote to ban will get the same support in the Senate where TikTok’s fate will ultimately be determined. What is plain however, is that the demand to offload ownership to a non-Chinese company will not safeguard anyone’s information. It will just place it in the hands of the US government’s proxy – some say a Zionist entity.
lenny unencumbered 