TikTok influencer torches ‘very harmful’ social media platform for fueling anti-Israel campus riots
U.K.-based conservative journalist Oli London is condemning TikTok, insisting that the app has fueled the angry anti-Israel agitators who have become a violent nuisance on college campuses.
U.K.-based conservative journalist Oli London is condemning TikTok, insisting that it has been used to spread propaganda in America. The disillusioned social media influencer insisted that the app has fueled the angry anti-Israel agitators who have become a violent nuisance on college campuses.
London, who has over one million followers on TikTok, told Fox News Digital on Wednesday that he does not post on it anymore because he sees it as an indoctrination hub for young people that has, in recent examples, encouraged them to take up political causes promoting antisemitism and ultimately ruining their lives.
"What I've noticed is there's a lot of kids being indoctrinated," London claimed, adding, "They're being indoctrinated with fake news, with propaganda that is very much anti-American values, very much anti-Jewish, very antisemitic."
Conservative commentator Oli London blamed TikTok for fueling the anti-Israel protests that are currently raging on American college campuses. (1. Fox News 2. Jason Armond / Contributor, Getty)
London broke down just how prevalent the controversial media app is among Americans, especially young ones, noting that "there are over 170 million Americans using TikTok" with a quarter of them being "under the age of 19."
"And 60% of TikTok users are between 16 to 24," the journalist continued, adding that this demographic – combined with what he says is a glut of anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian propaganda on the app – has fueled the protests that have ravaged college campuses in recent weeks.
"And so, most of these kids protesting at Columbia, at UCLA, at University of Texas-Austin, these are very angry people. Where did that anger come from? You know, six months ago these people wouldn't know where Palestine was," London told Fox.
"They wouldn't be able to locate it on the map. They don’t know which river they’re chanting about or which sea," he continued, referencing the infamous anti-Israel revolutionary slogan, "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."
"And it really shows you how easy it is to indoctrinate people when they constantly put pro-Palestinian videos on the ‘For You’ page," he continued, asserting that these pro-Palestinian and antisemitic videos are promoted to viewers via the app.
As a result, "we're seeing this anger" among the college students currently protesting.
He added, "These kids are angry. They don't know what they're protesting about. They just feel angry. They're, you know, ruining their lives. They're losing their university diplomas. They are getting suspended. They're getting arrested. They are ruining their lives."
"And I think that TikTok has really fueled this division and really indoctrinated an entire generation. I do think it's very, very harmful."
London is not the first media figure to call out pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas propaganda on TikTok. Only about a month after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel, several Jewish celebrities, including Sacha Baron Cohen, Debra Messing and Amy Schumer, met with TikTok executives and urged them to rein in antisemitic content found there.
During the meeting, Cohen accused the app of "creating the biggest antisemitic movement since the Nazis," and feeding the same incendiary content that leads Hamas fighters to hate Jewish people to young users.
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators watch police activity behind a makeshift barricade on the UCLA campus Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
In his interview with Fox News Digital, London corroborated Cohen’s "Nazi" condemnation of TikTok, declaring, "there's a lot of Jewish people saying that." He claimed that "there's also a lot of pro-Israel and Jewish voices being silenced on the app," and that his own account was limited because for speaking out against the anti-Israel rhetoric on there.
"Anyone that speaks about Israel or Jewish people in a favorable light has their videos de-amplified," he argued. "They get shadow banned. My account was personally banned. It was permanently banned in January, even though I hadn't posted for several weeks."
He continued pointing out the anti-Israel bias he says he’s seen on the app, accusing the app of silencing people "that speak positively about Israel or speak up for the Jewish community, whereas pro-Palestinian videos, they get amplified."
"We see a pile on in the comments, you know, being pro-Palestine, anti-Israel. We're seeing this hatred."
When asked what’s motivating this bias, London pointed to the app’s Chinese owners.
"So, you know, around four months ago, I actually stopped using the app. I haven't posted, and I don't think I will ever use it again, because I just think it is an arm of the Chinese government. It's being used as a propaganda tool to undermine national security interests in the US and Western countries."
The U.S. government has concerns over the app’s potential for data-collection and spying on Americans on behalf of its Chinese-owned parent company, Bytedance. The concerns have grown so great that Congress and President Biden passed a law forcing the sale of TikTok from the company.
A TikTok logo is displayed on a smartphone in this illustration taken on Jan. 6, 2020. (REUTERS/Dado Ruvic)
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Oli mentioned that the push-back the Chinese government has given this legislation is further evidence it’s using it to control western users.
"However, China has actually said they will refuse the sale if the algorithm is changed. So that tells you everything you need to know. The fact that the Chinese government is saying that they don't want it to be sold – if it is sold, they must keep the algorithm. That shows you that the algorithm for them is being used to fuel propaganda."
"It's anti-American. It's anti-Western values. And I think it's causing a lot of problems," London declared.
Michael Hughes from TikTok's Strategic Response team replied to Fox News Digital's request for comment with an excerpt form TikTok Newsroom blog noting how younger Americans are just more pro-Palestinian than previous generations. The blurb stated, "Support for Israel (as compared to sympathy for Palestine) has been lower among younger Americans for some time. This is evidenced by looking at Gallup polling data of millennials dating as far back as 2010, long before TikTok even existed."
It added, "A March 2023 Gallup poll, before the war, shows young adults have rapidly shifting attitudes towards the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. While an Echelon poll from October 26, 2023 shows that US TikTok users under 40 are more likely to support Israel (33% vs 28% for Palestine), and the proportions broadly reflect the split in the general under 40 population (32% for Israel, 23% for Palestine)."
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