TikTok Installs IDF CENSOR Over Platform

 from Breaking Points

 

Trump Claims Sweeping Power to Nullify Laws, Letters on TikTok Ban Show

10 Things to Know About the Ponderous Chain 

from the NYT

Attorney General Pam Bondi told tech companies that they could lawfully violate a statute barring American companies from supporting TikTok based on a sweeping claim that President Trump has the constitutional power to set aside laws, newly disclosed documents show.

In letters to companies like Apple and Google, Ms. Bondi wrote that Mr. Trump had decided that shutting down TikTok would interfere with his “constitutional duties,” so the law banning the social media app must give way to his “core presidential national security and foreign affairs powers.”

The letters, which became public on Thursday via Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, portrayed Mr. Trump as having nullified the legal effects of a statute that Congress passed by large bipartisan majorities in 2024 and that the Supreme Court unanimously upheld.

Pro-Israel lobby's footprint writ large in law banning TikTok

from TRT World

... In recent weeks, US lawmakers, including top officials such as US Secretary Antony Blinken, have openly voiced concern about Palestinian voices dominating the TikTok conversation and opposition to the Israeli war growing on US campuses.

“We have heard many senators and many lobbyists in the US who have expressed clearly that they also see TikTok to be a reason why students are suddenly protesting in great numbers for Palestine and against genocide,” says Jalal Abukhater, advocacy manager at 7amleh.

“They consider TikTok to be a biased place that is amplifying more pro-Palestine viewpoints than pro-Israel.”...

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TikTok Exposed Youth to Genocide in Gaza — Is That Why Electeds Want It Banned?

from Truthout April 2024

... In recent months, numerous politicians and Zionist groups have expressed alarm over TikTok, alleging that it has an anti-Israel bias and conflating that with antisemitism. Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-New Jersey), cosponsor of the TikTok bill, posted on social media that “China-owned TikTok has been pushing antisemitic, anti-Israel, anti-American, and pro-Hamas content” and “is a propaganda machine to influence Americans.” Other members of Congress — such as Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Illinois), Ritchie Torres (D-New York), Marco Rubio (R-Florida) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) — have made similar statements supporting the TikTok ban.

In claiming that TikTok is fueling “anti-Israel” and “pro-Hamas” content, elected officials are aligned with major Zionist organizations. Last fall, Jonathan Greenblatt, president of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), was recorded saying, “we really have a TikTok problem, a Gen-Z problem,” and groups like the Jewish Federations of North America and the Republican Jewish Coalition have applauded the TikTok ban.

Notably, some of the most vocal proponents of the TikTok ban — like Gottheimer, Torres and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisconsin), who sponsored the TikTok bill — are among the top recipients of donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), though AIPAC has not made any statements about the TikTok bill...

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Major US Jewish group backs bipartisan bill that could see TikTok banned

from Times of Israel March 2024

One of the most prominent Jewish groups in the country has thrown its support behind a fast-advancing bill that could lead to the massively popular video app TikTok being banned in the United States...

“The single most important issue to our Jewish communities today is the dramatic rise in antisemitism,” JFNA (Jewish Federations of North America) wrote in an official letter to Congress. “Our community understands that social media is a major driver of the drive in antisemitism and that TikTok is the worst offender by far.”...

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It could be months before the Senate takes up a TikTok bill, despite warnings about China

from NBC

A House-passed bill that could ban TikTok in the U.S. won’t be taken up by the Senate any time soon. In fact, it could take months before any TikTok-related legislation hits the floor in the Democratic-controlled chamber.

Senators emerged Wednesday from a classified briefing about TikTok saying they were highly concerned that the popular social media app — owned by China-based parent company ByteDance — poses a serious national security threat to the U.S. and its people. But key senators appear to be in no hurry to take up the House-passed TikTok bill and are working on their own legislation to regulate the app.

Senate Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., who organized Wednesday’s briefing along with Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., said after the closed-door meeting she might want to team with Warner again to hold a joint public hearing about TikTok.

But such a hearing would happen after Congress returns from its two-week Easter recess, which is scheduled to begin next week. Pressed about why she didn’t share the same urgency as House members, who rushed to pass the bill last week on a lopsided, bipartisan ​​vote of 352-65, Cantwell replied: “I think it’s important to get it right.”...

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TicTok Ban is About Total Internet Censorship: It's Our Version of Digital Services Act

When they want to pass legislation they know we wont support they always create a crisis and a boogieman. In this case it's China. Sure Israel needs to censor TicTok because the younger folks are learning way too early the true nature of Zionism. But goes it goes much deeper than that.