• The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bipartisan bill that would ban Americans from accessing the video app TikTok if its parent company, ByteDance, headquartered in China, does not sell its stake within six months. The bill also put other existing or future apps linked to the United States’ top strategic competitors — China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia — on notice, warning that they, too, could become subject to penalties. [foreignaffairs.com, jewishreviewofbooks.com, timesofisrael.com]
  • A conspiracy theory emerged, blaming Israel for the possible TikTok ban, which has been repeated by the state media in Iran, including the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and the Young Journalists Club News Agency. [atlanticcouncil.org]
  • The bill’s Democratic cosponsor, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, says the goal is to protect Americans from “digital surveillance and influence operations” by the Chinese government, and politicians backing the bill have centered their criticism of TikTok on national security concerns related to the app’s Chinese ownership and data collection practices. [jewishreviewofbooks.com, timesofisrael.com]
  • Lawmakers and officials have also raised concerns about TikTok’s handling of user data, its potential for surveillance, and its influence over Americans, leading to the push for a ban. [voanews.com, newarab.com]
  • The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) director Jonathan Greenblatt stated that Israel is facing a “major generational problem” in the United States, with a high number of young people believing that Hamas’ actions were justified. [atlanticcouncil.org]
  • TikTok videos with hashtags like #freepalestine were watched by Americans about fifty times more than pro-Israel ones in the aftermath of a Hamas attack in October 2022, and researchers found that TikTok had six times fewer pro-Israel and anti-Hamas posts than Instagram, which has a similar demographic. [jewishreviewofbooks.com]
  • According to an experiment, American TikTok users younger than 30 who spent 30 minutes a day on the site were 17% more likely than those off the platform to espouse anti-Zionist, antisemitic opinions. [jewishreviewofbooks.com]
  • One of America’s largest Jewish pro-Israel groups, the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), has expressed support for a proposed ban on the popular video-sharing app TikTok, citing concerns over “anti-Semitism” and “anti-Israel” views among its users. [newarab.com, voanews.com, jewishreviewofbooks.com, timesofisrael.com]

Sources:

  • Atlantic Council (English)
  • Foreign Affairs (English)
  • New Arab (English)
  • Voice of America (English)
  • Jewish Review of Books (English)
  • Times of Israel (English)
  • Mako (Hebrew)
  • Orient XXI (French)

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