I was delighted to see his interest in history – unforced by me, no less – but I quickly noticed that something else was going on: there was a row of boxes at the bottom of his screen, each labeled with a name. My son had taken it upon himself to mount a seminar of sorts for school friends on the Israeli narrative regarding Israel and Gaza.
Later that evening I pressed him more about his session. It turned out his peers had been challenging him with pro-Hamas propaganda, to the point he felt an intervention necessary. And how were 14-year-olds Kiwi kids in rural New Zealand absorbing all these pro-terror and antisemitic talking points? My friends and I certainly weren’t inside any of the details of Cold War skirmishes at their age.
TikTok.
I chased the strange cocktail of admiration for my son and profound sadness at the state of it all down with a difficult inner wrestle with my free speech principles. Was it free speech if children were actively being polluted with fashionable bigotry? What sort of counter-educational model could possibly take on the world’s most popular app among this vulnerable age range?
I am not alone in my concern. Republican nominee Nikki Haley had recently raised a vociferous call to arms, pushing for the banishment of Chinese-owned TikTok from the American digital landscape altogether. This followed the emergence of young users who, embroiled in the Israel-Hamas conflict, enthusiastically sought to spread Osama Bin Laden’s venomous missive “Letter to America,” that the butcher had written in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
For Haley, the “Letter to America” trend perfectly demonstrated the way foreign adversaries were exploiting the digital playground to disseminate anti-American propaganda among the most impressionable. Other nations had already acted, such as Nepal and India, in the face of threats to their national ethos. So, why not the land of the free?
TikTok sought to cut Haley off at the pass, pulling the videos down and claiming “Letter to America” to be a gross violation of their anti-terrorism policy. Haley also had to suffer accusations of hypocrisy from the pro-censorship Left that she, and many on the Right, had claimed to stand against.
Yet, this rabbit hole runs deeper. A research report by NewsGuard, claimed that when TikTok users seek information on critical news stories, a startling 20% of the videos will misinform. By contrast, Google could be trusted to deliver verifiable, less polarizing information, considerably reducing the flow of misinformation. Good for Google, but little consolation for parents and society at large seeing how TikTok outperformed the larger competitor within the youth demographic.
But we can’t blame malicious foreign actors alone. Local Left-wing political parties sense an advantage in a younger voting bloc and are courting the young (campaigning to lower the voting age to 16) while simultaneously embracing antisemitism and establishing it as a pillar in their respective manifestos. Their use of ‘River to the Sea’ could’ve been once sold as clumsy, but choosing to publicly lead chants of the genocidal Hamas slogan, only a month after the Oct 7th pogrom, was a calculated Hard-Right turn.
Will such parties see any issue with polluting 16-year-olds with such pro-terror slogans? Demented narratives that position the slave-owning hyper-racist Houthi as heroic? Jews as colonisers, their claim of indigeneity just the next Jewish scam?
They’re champing at the bit.
We’re standing at a precarious juncture, with our children viewed as the prize of an assortment of rancid ideologues. While censorship may not be the most effective path, it can’t be left to Jewish children alone to inoculate their peers from today’s disinformation problem.
What seems certain, however, is the best argument against lowering the voting age is not the question of age at all, but the cultural moment we live in. With identity politics now entering its degenerate stage, our kids would be safest locked down in the basement, while we all weather the storm.
Dane Giraud is a comedy writer and a member of the NZ Jewish community. This article was first published HERE
TikTok.
I chased the strange cocktail of admiration for my son and profound sadness at the state of it all down with a difficult inner wrestle with my free speech principles. Was it free speech if children were actively being polluted with fashionable bigotry? What sort of counter-educational model could possibly take on the world’s most popular app among this vulnerable age range?
I am not alone in my concern. Republican nominee Nikki Haley had recently raised a vociferous call to arms, pushing for the banishment of Chinese-owned TikTok from the American digital landscape altogether. This followed the emergence of young users who, embroiled in the Israel-Hamas conflict, enthusiastically sought to spread Osama Bin Laden’s venomous missive “Letter to America,” that the butcher had written in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
For Haley, the “Letter to America” trend perfectly demonstrated the way foreign adversaries were exploiting the digital playground to disseminate anti-American propaganda among the most impressionable. Other nations had already acted, such as Nepal and India, in the face of threats to their national ethos. So, why not the land of the free?
TikTok sought to cut Haley off at the pass, pulling the videos down and claiming “Letter to America” to be a gross violation of their anti-terrorism policy. Haley also had to suffer accusations of hypocrisy from the pro-censorship Left that she, and many on the Right, had claimed to stand against.
Yet, this rabbit hole runs deeper. A research report by NewsGuard, claimed that when TikTok users seek information on critical news stories, a startling 20% of the videos will misinform. By contrast, Google could be trusted to deliver verifiable, less polarizing information, considerably reducing the flow of misinformation. Good for Google, but little consolation for parents and society at large seeing how TikTok outperformed the larger competitor within the youth demographic.
But we can’t blame malicious foreign actors alone. Local Left-wing political parties sense an advantage in a younger voting bloc and are courting the young (campaigning to lower the voting age to 16) while simultaneously embracing antisemitism and establishing it as a pillar in their respective manifestos. Their use of ‘River to the Sea’ could’ve been once sold as clumsy, but choosing to publicly lead chants of the genocidal Hamas slogan, only a month after the Oct 7th pogrom, was a calculated Hard-Right turn.
Will such parties see any issue with polluting 16-year-olds with such pro-terror slogans? Demented narratives that position the slave-owning hyper-racist Houthi as heroic? Jews as colonisers, their claim of indigeneity just the next Jewish scam?
They’re champing at the bit.
We’re standing at a precarious juncture, with our children viewed as the prize of an assortment of rancid ideologues. While censorship may not be the most effective path, it can’t be left to Jewish children alone to inoculate their peers from today’s disinformation problem.
What seems certain, however, is the best argument against lowering the voting age is not the question of age at all, but the cultural moment we live in. With identity politics now entering its degenerate stage, our kids would be safest locked down in the basement, while we all weather the storm.
Dane Giraud is a comedy writer and a member of the NZ Jewish community. This article was first published HERE
5 comments:
It's all so tiresome. Yet another Jew wanting to censor anything that might give the lie to Israeli and Jewish propaganda about Israel and Jews respectively.
So people using TikTok are seeing and hearing ideas about the world that they would never be exposed to on the Jewish-friendly or Jewish-owned social media or MSM sources? Oh, the horror. "Shut it down!" is the predictable cry.
The "problem" with TikTok is that it is outside of Jewish influence, because China largely is, unlike the Western world. The Chinese don't have the same kowtowing and subservient attitude to the "can't ever do any wrong" Jews.
Because TikTok is a Chinese-owned app and not American, it is thus immune to the influence of the ubiquitous and self-serving Jewish thought police (most notably exemplified by ADL, who managed to halve the value of Twitter through pressuring advertisers to boycott the "hate" (i.e. free) speech that Musk has largely brought back) who censor the internet in their collective interest.
You said: Google could be trusted to deliver verifiable, less polarizing information, considerably reducing the flow of misinformation.
I suspect by the general tone of your complaint, that you agree with Google's information. I endorse all information being available with no cencorship. We mainly need honest transparent information - from the US, Israeli and other governments - right now we get coded information and propaganda from them. The BBC exposed the IDF doctoring at least one news story. When there is no reliable official information all sorts of actors leap into the fray.
If you tell a lie often enough, you become Israel.
Israel is deep into propaganda too. They don't need TikTok for that.
Also, it is a mistake to blame foreign actors and local left-wingers and say they're just promoting their own agenda. There are plenty of Jews around the world, and Israelis in Israel, who are horrified by Israel's aggression and disinformation.
I share your concern Dane. There are many confused adults, as we read here, but kids are even more susceptible (OR maybe they're getting wise - consider that) As always, those with thoughtful loving parents will have the best chance to grow into thoughtful loving human beings, so all the best to you and your family.
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