ERICK ERICKSON: We Would All Be Better Off If This Widely Popular Social Media Platform Disappeared

On May 2, 2011, American soldiers raided Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan and recovered an undated letter to the United States. It was a propagandistic letter calling for endless wars against American imperialism.

It circulated on several news sites including The Guardian. On the day Chinese dictator Xi Jinping met with American President Joe Biden in San Francisco, the letter began circulating on TikTok, a website controlled by the Chinese military.

Thousands of American kids began circulating and sharing bin Laden’s anti-American commentary.

“Continue the war if you will. Justice is the strongest army, and security is the best way of life, but it slipped out of your grasp the day you made the Jews victorious in occupying our land and killing our brothers in Palestine. The path to security is for you to lift your oppression from us,” bin Laden wrote.

“This has left me very disillusioned, and I feel the same exact way I felt when I was deconstructing Christianity,” said one TikToker encouraging others to “go read it.”

“In the last 20 minutes my entire viewpoint on the entire life I lead and have lived has changed. Please read that entire letter,” said another. “It is so mind-f—ing me that terrorism has been sold as this idea to the American people… that this random group of people just woke up one day and suddenly f—ing hate you,” another said, who went on to say, “the actions of 9/11 and those acts committed against the USA and its people were all just the buildup of our government failing other nations.”

On and on they went — thousands of mostly young women claiming their eyes were suddenly open to 9/11 being justified and terrorism really being a noble resistance against an oppressor.

Many of the people referenced the British newspaper The Guardian publishing the letter. The Guardian took the letter down in response to massive traffic on its site. That just further convinced people of a government conspiracy to hide Osama bin Laden’s truth.

TikTok is an app overseen by the Chinese military and Chinese communist party. It can run clever ads all it wants and hire as many Republicans and Democrats as it likes to persuade Americans that it is not nefarious, but that does not change the fact that at its root TikTok is a massive spy and disinformation platform controlled by China.

It just so happened, in its algorithm, to elevate videos of people discovering bin Laden’s letter on the day China’s leader met the American president in San Francisco. The TikTokers all conclude terrorism is a justifiable act of resistance against oppressors.

TikTok collects data on people who use the site. It feeds people disinformation. Its algorithm has chosen to show people pro-Hamas and anti-Israeli videos — the truths of the Palestinians.

It has been the platform of preference to target teens and propagandize in favor of transgenderism and sex reassignment surgeries. It is also the top news source for Americans aged 18-29, according to numerous surveys.

In 2016 and 2020, the American news media became convinced that the American owned companies Facebook and Twitter were disinformation platforms being used by Russia to promote Donald Trump. As we head into 2024, the top news source of young Americans is literally controlled by the military of a foreign adversary that not only uses the platform to spy on Americans, but also uses it to feed our youth malicious disinformation designed to turn them both against their basic biology and against the nation.

TikTok really must be destroyed in its present form. Former President Donald Trump pushed to shut down TikTok unless China gave up its control. Trump’s efforts were thwarted. Multiple states have banned TikTok from government devices and attempted to block the platform’s use at government locations.

President Joe Biden has declined. A man who claims he is concerned about misinformation and disinformation seems wholly uninterested in shutting down China’s easy access into the lives and minds of our kids.

Just as notable, after seven years of mass media hysteria about Facebook, Twitter and misinformation, the American press corps seems wholly uninterested in what China is doing to our nation via TikTok.

To find out more about Erick Erickson and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.