ALBAWABA - Social media platforms were filled with rumors after the United States passed a bill on Wednesday to ban the Chinese TikTok app.
Yesterday, the US House of Representatives passed a bill with a strong majority, signalling a potential ban on the famous Chinese app unless TikTok's owner divests from its operations.
The bill comes after high concerns about data privacy and national security, with fears that ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, could be compelled by the Chinese government to hand over user data.
A video of Nany Pelosi emerged yesterday in which she was defending banning the TikTok app, she said: "This is not an attempt to ban TikTok. It's an attempt to make TikTok better. Tic-Tac-Toe. A winner. A winner."
Is US banning TikTok to stop pro-Palestinian content?
Despite the US clarification that the TikTok bill came amid fears of data breaching and leaking, many took to social media to link the TikTok ban to the Israeli war in Gaza.
The TikTok platform is known for being rich with videos on Palestine and the latest Israeli aggression on Gaza, activists said that the Biden government is attempting to curb the spread of pro-Palestinian content by banning the Chinese app.
An X user posted: "The U.S. is funding a genocide in Palestine that’s set to slaughter hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinian human beings…
And Pelosi is blathering around like a fool over implementing censorship so people in the U.S. can’t see Israel’s war crimes on the Palestinian people."
Another activist added: "The US Congress could've worked to improve healthcare and social services, control guns, cancel student loans, end AIPAC intervention in the US politics, or end the genocide in Gaza.
But they prefer to ban TikTok to help other people."
(Photo shared by UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini on X)
Israel's war in Gaza
Since the Al-Aqsa Flood operation carried out by Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, which was the biggest offensive in decades, Tel Aviv responded by launching an offensive against Gaza.
After 160 days of war, the health ministry in Gaza reported that at least 31,272 Palestinians have been killed and 73,024 others were injured.
According to UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, more children were killed in Gaza compared to those killed in 4 years of wars "around the world combined."
He posted on X that at least 12,300 kids have died in the enclave in the last four months in Gaza, compared with 12,193 globally between 2019 and 2022.
