Bin Laden support is just another reason to ban TikTok
Washington Examiner
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That Osama bin Laden’s “Letter to America” justifying the murder of 3,000 Americans on 9/11 suddenly became popular online this week might have been more surprising if one weren’t familiar with its content and what passes for enlightened thought on TikTok.
Bin Laden’s language is neither foreign nor shocking to anyone who has spent time on college campuses in the last 20 years. It’s garden-variety claptrap about the evils of America, which could have been written by any stoned left-wing Democratic Party activist during a late-night dorm room bull session — well, except for the bit about punishing homosexuality, of course.
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But the rest is a formulation from the usual catalog of radical grievances: “You steal our wealth and oil at paltry prices,” “You have destroyed nature with your industrial waste and gases more than any other nation in history,” and “Your law is the law of the rich and wealthy people, who hold sway in their political parties, and fund their election campaigns with their gifts.” If you just remove a few other lines, such as criticism of former President Bill Clinton for “immoral acts committed in the official Oval Office,” it reads like a press release or stump speech from Rep. Blowhard (D).
Such anti-American sentiments have been popular for years with TikTok’s Chinese Communist algorithm. Who can be surprised? It is no accident that Generation Z is the only one to say they get their news from TikTok and also the only generation to say they aren’t proud to be an American.
Gen Z is also most likely to be depressed, most likely to suffer from gender dysphoria, and most likely to identify as gay. It’s almost as though our most potent foreign adversary designed a mind-control device to turn our rising generation against its own country. Members of Gen Z know they have a problem. According to a recent McKinsey Health Institute report, they are more likely to cite negative feelings about social media than anyone else. They are crying out for help.
We should answer that cry.
First, we should ban TikTok, China’s propaganda tool and spy app. India has already done it. It’s easy to do and would be a great first step to restoring mental health to many people.
This is not a free speech issue. Banning TikTok would not suppress anyone’s right to say what they want. If people want to share bin Laden’s “Letter to America,” hundreds of other platforms are available on which to do so. But they aren’t controlled by an algorithm designed by China, and the data collected from those apps are not sent to the Chinese Communist Party.
This is a bipartisan issue. Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) and Mike Gallagher (R-WI) have all introduced legislation to ban TikTok. After the bizarre turn of TikTok users to bin Laden as though he were a guru, what more evidence do we need that the platform is bad for America, particularly its young? The legislation is written and the time is now. Congress should pass this bill, and President Joe Biden should sign it.