TikTok users worry the ban is an attempt to suppress their free speech. Illustration by Mira Fox

By Mira Fox January 15, 2025

The Supreme Court is set to rule this week on whether or not to ban TikTok, the short-form video app. Those promoting the ban say it poses a national security threat and could allow the Chinese government to mine Americans’ data; ByteDance, which owns the app, is a Chinese company.

But many users on the platform think that’s a coverup. The real reason to ban TikTok, they say, is to suppress news about Gaza.

The consequences of a ban for TikTok users could be far-reaching — entire economic ecosystems have developed and influencers have built livelihoods on the platform. But most importantly, for many TikTokers, the app is their primary source of news. Particularly news they believe more mainstream media sources are hiding.

“Fascist countries ban apps and websites under the guise of threats to national security, when every other country knows it’s about suppressing the free speech of its citizens,” said one popular TikToker in a viral video about the ban, calling the app “the most popular news and media outlet that the government cannot control.”

Since Oct. 7, commentators and Jewish figures such as Sascha Baron Cohen have noted a strong bent toward pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli content on the platform; some lawmakers accused the app of purposefully biasing its algorithm to favor pro-Palestinian content as part of an anti-Israel agenda.

TikTok repeatedly denied endorsing an anti-Israel agenda, meeting with Jewish influencers, celebrities and organizations including the Anti-Defamation League to reassure them that the platform was not biased. The company pointed out that videos with the hashtag #standwithIsrael received more views than those tagged #freepalestine; though there are more of the latter, users were still seeing the pro-Israel videos proportionately more, indicating, if any bias, one toward pro-Israel content.

And analysts pointed out that support for the Palestinian cause, even before Oct. 7, was growing among the younger generations who make up the vast majority of TikTok’s user base —  they argued that the app’s videos supporting Palestinians or criticizing Israel were likely an accurate reflection of the beliefs shared by the majority of users using the platform.

Nevertheless, even as early as fall 2023, largely Republican lawmakers referenced TikTok’s anti-Israel videos as a reason to ban TikTok in the U.S. “TikTok is a tool China uses to spread propaganda to Americans, now it’s being used to downplay Hamas terrorism,” wrote Sen. Marco Rubio on X in November 2023. (Rubio is now under consideration for Secretary of State in the Trump administration.)

Former house representative from Wisconsin, Mike Gallagher, wrote an article arguing that the app was “brainwashing our youth against the country and our allies” with “rampant pro-Hamas propaganda.”

And Mitt Romney drew a direct line between his support for the ban and pro-Palestinian content on TikTok. “Some wonder why there was such overwhelming support for us to shut down potentially TikTok or other entities of that nature,” he said at a forum in May, going on to allege that “the number of mentions of Palestinians” is far higher on TikTok “relative to other social media sites.”

But that’s not true; nearly every social media platform tilted toward “Free Palestine” content in the wake of Oct. 7. A study from The Washington Post in November 2023 found a similar proportion of pro-Palestine posts on Facebook and Instagram, yet no one is trying to ban Meta.

All of this means: It makes sense that TikTokers feel as though the ban on their favorite app is an attempt to limit their free speech about Palestine, and prevent criticism of Israel, all in an attempt to influence American thinking away from supporting Palestinians and toward supporting Israel. After all, the governmental figures leading the charge against the platform have said as much.

However, while TikTok’s pro-Palestinian content is likely organic, it’s also true that TikTok has long struggled with a proliferation of antisemitic content. Even before the war began, Jewish influencers complained of rampant antisemitism flooding their accounts; sometimes, it was Palestinian flags dominating their comment sections, but often it was references to Hitler or Nazis or ovens, or memes making fun of Jews.

Platforms shape and inform those who use them, and TikTok’s algorithm is tuned to send users more of whatever type of content they seem interested in, which means that looking even briefly or out of morbid curiosity at antisemitic conspiracies will cause the users feed to be filled with more and more of them.

But antisemitic conspiracies, too, are spreading on other platforms as well. Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, renaming it X and reinstating the accounts of white supremacists and racists, antisemitic conspiracies and allegations have deluged the site. There’s been plenty of advocacy to leave the platform, but no congressional push to get rid of the company.

Given that many of the same images from the ground in Gaza that fill TikTok also appear on Instagram and X, a ban on the video app is unlikely to actually change access to information about the war. Those saying the ban on TikTok is an attempt to limit support for Palestine in the U.S. may be right; it’s just not likely to work.

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