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On a Ban of the Platform Streaming the Bombing of Gaza
It’s oddly coincidental that the week American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbyists descend en masse on Capitol Hill to demand more weapons for Israel to obliterate Gaza, the House passes a bill to set the stage to ban TikTok, the social media platform live streaming Israel’s bombardment of Gaza to a generation of young people picking up Palestinian flags and shouting “Cease-fire now!”
The House bill, fate unknown in the Senate, requires the Chinese subsidiary Bytedance to sell off its shares and divest within six months of the legislation’s enactment or say goodbye to 170 million US TikTokers, almost half of them under the age of 30.
Santa Barbara Congressmember Salud Carbajal sided with the majority to give TikTok a likely heave ho, and was ready with a video-tweet defending his vote and pointing a finger at China minutes after the bill passed. “This is a data security bill,” said Carbajal, “one that would force TikTok and other foreign-owned social media apps to ensure that their databases — which are filled with your personal data — don’t have direct links to foreign governments …”
In reality, the White House is the one with a direct link to a foreign government.
Since October 7, the Biden administration has flooded Israel with weapons — bunker busters, missiles, attack jets — to assist in killing or injuring more than 100,000 Palestinians. The Washington Post reports President Biden has approved 100 separate arms shipments to Israel, rushing weapons to the occupier every 36 hours, according to Pentagon researcher Stephen Semler.
With our youth scrolling TikTok, witnessing Israeli soldiers firing on starving Gazans desperate for a ration of flour, it’s no wonder young people are demanding a cease-fire.
Our youth are not alone.
The latest Data for Progress poll (2/27/24) reveals that two-thirds of U.S. voters support a permanent cease-fire in Gaza and only 12 percent want to continue sending weapons to Israel without any preconditions, such as ending the indiscriminate bombing of civilians.
Despite the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors passing a “We stand in solidarity with the State of Israel” resolution on November 11, when Israel had already killed 10,000 Gazans, local opposition to Israel’s bombing of hospitals, refugee centers, apartments and escape routes has been loud and visible — with repeated demonstrations in front of Congressmember Carbajal’s office, a 1,000-plus student walk-out at UCSB, a Palestinian flag raised at the top of the Santa Barbara courthouse, and multiple bike rides for Palestine sponsored by the Central Coast Antiwar Coalition in solidarity with the Gaza Sunbirds, a Palestinian para-cycling team whose athletes lost their limbs to Israeli snipers and soldiers.
Yet many in Congress, including Carbajal, refuse to support a permanent cease-fire and are demanding a House floor vote on another $14 billion in weapons to Israel. Carbajal, who just won his primary race with 55.2 percent of the vote — beating Republican border-wall-er Thomas Cole and progressive anti-war challenger Helena Pasquarella — earlier issued a press release championing President Biden’s $95 billion war spending supplemental that includes the money to further arm Israel.
It’s hard to understand how any member of Congress with a beating heart could vote to bury another baby in the graveyard of Gaza — no matter how the bill is packaged or framed, though hurling money at Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman (all with offices in Goleta) to produce more weapons to kill more children insulates politicians from AIPAC’s wrath. This Israel lobby group, which is not required to file under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), vows to spend $100 million to defeat candidates in the General Election who do not stand with Israel.
Follow the money and the slaughter, but not for long, on TikTok. Unless lots of us go viral with “Save TikTok!” Or at least pick up the phone to demand our senators reject adoption of H.R. 7521 because the bill raises all sorts of antitrust concerns (Who will buy Bytedance’s shares? Elon Musk?) and First Amendment alarms (Who will our government censor next?) should Congress sentence TikTok to oblivion.
China is not our enemy. Neither is Palestinian liberation.
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