Major US Jewish group welcomes proposed ban of China’s ‘antisemitic’ TikTok

By Emre Basaran

ISTANBUL (AA) - A US House of Representatives bill seeking to ban Chinese-owned TikTok has made headlines globally, and pro-Israel circles appear to be welcoming the proposal, citing the “rise of antisemitic content” on the platform.

The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), an American Jewish umbrella organization representing over 350 independent Jewish groups in the country, praised the proposed ban in an official statement published on Wednesday.

“The single most important issue to our Jewish communities today is the dramatic rise in antisemitism,” the group said, adding that “TikTok is the worst offender by far” in antisemitism.

“TikTok has helped fuel a horrific spike in antisemitism that our communities are feeling every day, and it’s time to take action,” said Eric Fingerhut, the group’s president and CEO.

On the House vote approving the measure – after which it still needs Senate approval and the president’s signature – he said: “Today’s vote showed the strong, bipartisan support for ensuring that TikTok cannot continue to push hateful messages into our communities, and we urge the Senate to quickly take up and pass this legislation.”

The federations group seeks to force ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, to sell the US assets of the app or face a total ban in the country. As TikTok has a staggering 170 million users in the US, many of whom use the app for a living, lawmakers have been flooded with phone calls from disgruntled users.

It also said that ByteDance “is beholden to the Chinese government, which has squarely positioned itself against Israel” since Oct. 7, when a surprise Hamas incursion killed close to 1,200 people.

“China has filled its state-controlled media and social media channels with antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric,” the organization also claimed.

According to Human Rights Watch, the company does indeed have ties to the Chinese government and the ruling Chinese Communist Party, within the scope of a so-called “internal party committee” as part of its governance structure.

The internal party committee of ByteDance is headed by the company’s vice president, Zhang Fuping, according to Human Rights Watch.

- Questionable statistics

Without providing any details of its methodology or how it is carried out, the Jewish Federations of North America also cited a study which allegedly showed that “those who use TikTok for over 30 minutes a day are 17 percent more like to be antisemitic or hold anti-Israel views, compared to six percent on Instagram and two percent on X.”

However, Anadolu found that the group probably was citing a study that has also been misinterpreted by former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, who recently suspended her run for the US Republican Party presidential nomination.

The study published by Anthony Goldbloom on GitHub, a popular software developer platform, actually pointed to the finding that spending half an hour a day using the app was associated with “a 17% increase in the likelihood they were to hold antisemitic or anti-Israel views compared to people who don’t use it at all,” according to Steve Goldstein, the European Bureau chief of news website MarketWatch.

“While much higher than the antisemitic views of Instagram or X users, the study does not suggest that continuing to use the Chinese-owned social media service will further bolster the user’s antisemitic views,” he added.

The Jewish group also said antisemitic comments on TikTok rose 912% over the course of a year – all but doubling.

“This national security bill offers our president the tools necessary to protect American citizens’ personal data from being used by foreign adversaries, particularly TikTok,” it added, urging the Senate to pass the bill and send it to US President Joe Biden, who pledged to sign it if it arrives to his desk.

The group also claimed that the bill is somehow “not a ban” on TikTok, and it “does not restrict” Americans’ rights stemming from the First Amendment, which bars Congress from “abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble.”

“But the harm TikTok is doing cannot be ignored.”

- TikTok long accused of antisemitism

Since the Israel-Palestine conflict flared up on Oct. 7, other organizations, politicians, celebrities and TikTokers have been voicing their concerns about the app, accusing it of allowing antisemitic content.

In November, Jewish users of the platform launched a website called “Dear TikTok,” which contains an open letter to the app’s administration.

“Dear TikTok, Your platform is not safe for Jewish users,” the letter says.

“Simply put, TikTok lacks critical safety features to protect Jewish content creators and the broader Jewish TikTok community, leaving us in digital and physical danger,” it adds, accusing the company of “not doing enough” to protect its Jewish users.

“Your Jewish creators – who regularly enliven the For You page with videos of dancing, cooking, singing, and positivity of all kinds – are being bombarded with abhorrent inhumanity solely due to our ethno-religious identity. This hate and vitriol is not rare, spontaneous or unexpected. Sadly, rampant antisemitism is a common problem that TikTok has failed to address for far too long,” it said, urging the platform to “not become a permanent cesspool of indiscriminate and aggressive antisemitism.”

TikTok has long denied the antisemitism accusation.

“Hateful ideologies, like antisemitism, are not and have never been allowed on our platform,” TikTok said in a statement, later adding that the #StandWithIsrael hashtag gained 46.3 million views on the platform since Oct. 7 in the US compared with 29.4 million for #StandWithPalestine.