“We want Congress to tell TikTok that their time is up. We’re done with the lies the platform spreads about the Jewish people and Israel.”
The Jewish Federations of North America
The TikTok social media platform is used by millions of people in the United States and all over the world. Most often they share videos of their families or their pets or their latest dance steps. Sometimes they share political opinions about the news of the day, and therein lies the latest ginned up panic over TikTok.
The reasons that most people access TikTok seem rather harmless but TikTok’s corporate owner, ByteDance, is headquartered in Beijing, China, a fact which makes the company a political and economic target. China hatred was originally the purview of the right wing of the Republican Party, whose representatives engage in endless screeds about the Chinese Communist Party, which ironically doesn’t even exist. There is a Communist Party of China, but incorrectly stating the name appears to be an important element in the politically motivated theatrics.
On March 23, 2023 TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew endured five hours of testimony before a congressional committee. The pretext for the hearing was concern about data privacy and accusations that........