Event Summary:
As the Israel-Gaza war continues to take place Tik-Tok has been one of the biggest influences on the people’s opinions about the event taking place worldwide. While the United States has been showing more support towards Israel during this war out of the 150 million Americans using tik Tok have shown significant favoritism towards the opposing side being Palestine. Since this media app allows for freedom to post about any view users have the United States government feel very threatened at the hashtag statist comparison between #standwithpalestine having 2.9 billion views and #standwithislael having only 200 million views. Due to these statistics the United States government is projecting that this is yet another reason to ban tik tok in America. With the United States government accusing the over pouring support of Palestine a result of the Chinese governments preference in this war, the Chinese media company the owns tik tok states they have no influence on who views what videos stating that pro-Israel and pro-Palestine videos have both been relatively spilt in the millions as far as views go. Along with the US government groups of Jewish individuals are also calling on the creators of tik tok to set up a harsher monitoring system and a better guide to public disclosure as well.
My Take:
So, if America has created the right of “freedom of speech” to all who reside in this country why are they so hurt at the fact that while the government supports Israel its people choose to support Palestine? The power of events, videos, and event interviews of people from both countries during this war will give tik tok users the closes in person understanding of the impacts both countries face. I saw a tik tok interview with a family in Palestine who suffered heartbreaking consequences of this war which gained millions of views but within the same day I also saw the same video format of an Israel family which also gained millions of views. If I had to figure out if the Chinese government was out to “brainwash” American citizens, I would complete disagree. Users across America as well as any other country have probably seen both sides of this war broadcasted over tik tok it’s the American government who is getting all hurt that their citizens don’t hold the same mindset on this war as they do.
My Question to You:
If you were in the US government how would you factor in all the events through this war on Tik Tok and the national security of America? Would you agree that this Chinese app is tampering with viral videos to better match their beliefs?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/11/02/tiktok-israel-hamas-video-brainwash/
I do not agree that Tiktok is tampering with videos to match their beliefs. I guess anything is possible, but if the argument is that Tiktok is promoting pro- Palestine content to influence American views to match that of China's, I don't believe it. China is in favor of Palestine as an independent nation with East Jerusalem as the capital, but China also holds a lot of foreign investment in Israel, meaning a pro- Palestine stance would not be favorable economically. I am in agreeance with you that the video footage of the war and victims is more than enough to influence public opinion. This war is not only about geographical concerns, it also has ties to religion and culture in which many Americans share with one of the nations. There is also the fact that content creators are probably using that hashtag because it's most popular to boost views, subsequently bringing more views to the hashtag.
ReplyDeleteI was hoping someone would write a blog post on this very subject. Thank you for the interesting post as well as including statistics.
Great post! While I disagree with the notion that tik-tok is deliberately pushing pro-palestine content in order to sway public opinion in the US, I do think that the reaction says a lot about the role the Israel lobby plays in American foreign policy. In any case, I think if you were to look at a breakdown of the demographics, Tik-Tok consists overwhelmingly of young people (even more so than Twitter or Facebook). Since young people gnenerally lean to the left, which leans in favor of Palestine, I think we see a disproportionate amount of pro-palestine content on the platform. Regarding the American response, I feel that it has been more diverse than you are giving credit for. Among statesmen and women across the western world, there has been an outpouring of support for the people of Palestine. I would say it has been met with equally fervent support of Israel (usually from the evangelical right), but nonetheless I don't think it is entirely fair to say the US government as a whole does not want people to support Palestine.
ReplyDeleteWhile I do disagree with the notion of TikTok enforcing pro-Palestine content through its media, I do depict some sort of truth through the foreign policy of our country in aid to Israel. Israel lobbying, particularly that of the government, reflects on aspects of monetary support and such. However, the TikTok source itself does not define its viewers to a particular sway, as the for you page ought to bring a notion of the viewer's interest, as well as a topic associated with that interest; ex. pro-Palestine individual receiving content of Israel's take on the issue.
ReplyDelete