Senator John Fetterman on Tuesday blamed social media app TikTok for giving young people a “warped” view of the Israel-Hamas war.
The Democratic senator made the comment during an interview on CNN’s “The Lead” in which he was asked about the reason behind the divisions in the Democratic Party over the Israel-Hamas war.
“I really don’t know,” he replied. “I know that a lot of people are getting their perspective from TikTok.”
“And I think, if you’re kind of getting your perspective on the world on TikTok, it’s going to tend to be kind of warped or not reflective of the history and actually the way things absolutely are,” he continued.
Mr Fetterman has been vocal in his support for Israel since the 7 October attack despite the country’s bombing campaign against Hamas in Gaza, which has left over 19,000 Palestinians dead, and many more without homes.
But the Pennsylvania Democrat says Hamas bears responsibility for the ongoing violence in Gaza, not Israel.
“What is very clear is, is that Hamas started this, and they actually broke the ceasefire, and they attacked and murdered babies, children, women, attacked a music concert and everything. It’s outrageous,” Mr Fetterman said.
“And from now on, it’s been very clear that Israel would very much want there to be peace. But they have made it very clear that, after October 7, that’s just not possible so long as Hamas is allowed to exist,” he added.
Senator John Fetterman on Tuesday blamed social media app TikTok for giving young people a ‘warped’ view of the Israel-Hamas war— (AP)
His comments come after a recent poll which found that 72 per cent of young voters disapprove of how President Biden, who has so far declined to call for a ceasefire in the region, is handling the Israel-Hamas war.
But while many Democrats have departed from President Biden, arguing for a ceasefire in Gaza, Mr Fetterman has been a vocal supporter of Israel and has opposed ceasefire efforts, supporting the country’s right to retaliate.
Mr Fetterman’s latest comments echo calls by congressional members and conservative activists to ban TikTok with some arguing the platform has a pro-Palestinian bias. TikTok called the allegations of bias baseless, NBC News reported.
The platform added that it had created a command center and assembled specific resources and personnel to “robustly respond” to the Israel-Hamas war. It said the platform removed more than 925,000 videos from 7 October to 31 October for violating TikTok’s policies around violence, hate, misinformation and terrorism. Those videos included content promoting Hamas, the platform said.
TikTok, which is owned by the China-based tech giant ByteDance, has also come under fire in the US in recent months for its alleged security issues. In January 2020, the United States Army and Navy banned TikTok on government devices after the Defense Department labeled it a security risk amid concerns over the ability of the Chinese Communist Party to access the data of US citizens using the app.
TikTok has previously insisted that it does not share data with the Chinese government.
