Why Do Calls For Banning TikTok Going Strong Amid Israel-Palestine War?
Social media platform TikTok always finds itself at the centre of controversy. In the context of Israel – Palestine war, the platform has received several backlashes for its contents monitored to be pro-Palestine. TikTok is owned by a Chinese tech company, ByteDance and has been at the receiving end of backlashes for propagating “Beijing’s agenda”.
The call for boycotting TikTok in Saudi Arabia is gaining strength now. Saudi Arabia accuses the app for censoring Saudi contents. Many Saudi based users of TikTok accuse the platform for allegedly restricting pro Saudi contents at the same time allowing comments that blemish the country’s image.
As per media reports, a Palestinian man’s TikTok account was deleted after he posted a video about praising Saudi Arabia for their aid to Palestine amidst the Israel – Palestine war.
The boycott campaign of TikTok has reached to the Private sectors of the country. Asharq Al-Awsat paper of the country said Saudi First Division League, which is also known as Yelo League, a football association, has said they had severed ties with TikTok for their alleged restriction on pro Saudi contents.
The Saudi paper quoted the source from the football association as saying, “the kingdom is a red line, and any ill-action against it is unacceptable. Therefore, the contract (with TikTok) was terminated. Starting next season, the company will no longer have any presence in the competition”, as reported by AL-MONITOR.
The “Al Hilal Amphitheatre”, an ‘unofficial’ portal covering for Al Hilal club came forward announcing the “closure of our account on the TikTok platform after they insulted the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”.
دعمًا منًا للحملة الوطنية ؛ نعلن في “مدرج الهلال” إغلاق حسابنا على منصة تيك توك بعد إسائتهم للمملكة العربية السعودية 🇸🇦#مقاطعه_تيك_توك pic.twitter.com/Zq6QdQMBds
— مدرج الهلال (@modarajalhilal) November 9, 2023
Arab News, which is a Saudi Arabia based leading news paper has also came forward announcing their decision to deactivate their TikTok account “in solidarity with Saudi user’s community who petitioned the apps bias and violations”.
We at Arab News decided to deactivate our #TikTok account in solidarity with the #Saudi user’s community who petitioned the app’s bias and violations.
Please follow us here on X instead.#مقاطعه_تيك_توك pic.twitter.com/cYUpWGSwF6
— Arab News (@arabnews) November 10, 2023
The social media platform has issued a statement regarding the alleged accusations and said that, “the rumours regarding TikTok removing content to Saudi Arabia are not true. We strongly reject these allegations that are inconsistent with our policies and values”. The statement also added the app “strongly reject the deliberate smear campaigns that are practiced on our employees and partners and threaten their security and safety” and “strongly condemned” the allegations pointed at the app.
TikTok has always been under the radar of US politicians and lawmakers for allegedly spreading “Beijing’s agendas”. In recent weeks, US has turned against TikTok for pushing youngsters towards supporting Palestine and Hamas and anti-Israel and anti-Jewish.
According to reports, Democrats and Republicans has introduced several bills which were aimed at banning TikTok but was not came in to effect due to the concern over free speech.
US Senator, Josh Howley said in a letter to US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that, “while data security issues are paramount, less often discussed is TikTok’s power to radically distort the world picture that America’s young people encounter. Israel’s unfolding war with Hamas is a crucial test case”, as quoted by Al Jazeera.
He further added that, “analysts have attributed this disparity to the ubiquity of anti-Israel content on TikTok, where most young users get their information about the world”.
But the young generation of United States’ slant towards Palestinians has started before the current Israel- Hamas war, as per Pew Research’ survey in 2022. The survey suggests that 6 percent of the America’s generation aged between 18-29 remarked that they find the Palestinian people either “very favourable” or “somewhat favourably” while compared to the national average of 52 percent. When asked the same about Israelis, 56 percent of the people aged between 18-29 finds the Israelis favourably when compared to the national average of 67 percentage.
The major credit for this generational shift can be given to the boycott campaigns that raised from the Universities. Al Jazeera reported that, according to the Anti-Defamation League, around 665 “anti-Israel incidents have been reported from June 2022 to May 2023 and has expressed their concern over the “growing radical movement to place opposition of Israel and Zionism as core elements of college life”.
