Current Events > Mitt Romney admits TikTok ban is intended to control narratives about Israel etc

(+) Yeah! (+)

SENATOR ROMNEY: Why has the PR been so awful? I know thats not your area of expertise, but you have to have some thoughts on that, which is, I mean, as youve said, why has Hamas disappeared in terms of public perception? An offer is on the table to have a ceasefire, and yet the world is screaming about Israel. Its like, why are they not screaming about Hamas? Accept the ceasefire and bring home the hostages. Instead, its all the other way around. I mean, typically the Israelis are good at PR. Whats happened here? How have they how have they/ and we/ been so ineffective at communicating the realities there and our point of view?

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Look, I mean, there are two things. One is that, look, there is an inescapable reality, and that is the inescapable reality of people who have and continue to suffer grievously in Gaza. And thats real and we have to have to be focused on that and attentive to that.

At the same time, how this narrative has evolved, yeah, its a great question. I dont have a good answer to that. One can speculate about what some of the causes might be. I dont know. I can tell you this and we were talking about this a little bit over dinner with Cindy. I think in my time in Washington, which is a little bit over 30 years, the single biggest change has been in the information environment. And when I started out in the early 1990s, everyone did the same thing. You woke up in the morning, you opened the door of your apartment or your house, you picked up a hard copy of The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal. And then if you had a television in your office, you turned it on at 6:30 or 7 oclock and watched the national network news.

Now, of course, we are on an intravenous feed of information with new impulses, inputs every millisecond. And of course, the way this has played out on social media has dominated the narrative. And you have a social media ecosystem environment in which context, history, facts get lost, and the emotion, the impact of images dominates. And we cant we cant discount that, but I think it also has a very, very, very challenging effect on the narrative.

SENATOR ROMNEY: A small parenthetical point, which is some wonder why there was such overwhelming support for us to shut down potentially TikTok or other entities of that nature. If you look at the postings on TikTok and the number of mentions of Palestinians relative to other social media sites, its overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcasts. So Id note thats of real interest, and the President will get the chance to make action in that regard.

So why dont they also ban facebook or reddit or twitter or youtube

If you look at the postings on TikTok and the number of mentions of Palestinians relative to other social media sites, its overwhelmingly so among TikTok broadcasts

So why dont they also ban facebook or reddit or twitter or youtube

Because Twitter is literally controlled by a child minded racist.

They've been talking about banning tiktok for much longer than the war in Gaza has been going on.

Didn't it start when tik tokkers trolled Trump by signing up for seats at a rally and then not coming. So that he had a bunch of empty chairs on live tv

They've been talking about banning tiktok for much longer than the war in Gaza has been going on.

Because Twitter is literally controlled by a child minded racist.

Doesnt the idea of banning Tic-Tok predate the Oct. 7 attack?

So why dont they also ban facebook or reddit or twitter or youtube

i still think its because they want that sweet sweet personal info to sell back to china

So why dont they also ban facebook or reddit or twitter or youtube

i still think its because they want that sweet sweet personal info to sell back to china

Look, I mean, there are two things. One is that, look, there is an inescapable reality, and that is the inescapable reality of people who have and continue to suffer grievously in Gaza. And thats real and we have to have to be focused on that and attentive to that.

At the same time, how this narrative has evolved, yeah, its a great question. I dont have a good answer to that. One can speculate about what some of the causes might be.

So why dont they also ban facebook or reddit or twitter or youtube

i still think its because they want that sweet sweet personal info to sell back to china

Its not even an immediate ban right?

They've been talking about banning tiktok for much longer than the war in Gaza has been going on.

It's not the ultimate cause for the ban but I do think all of the footage of the horrors inflicted on Gaza was a factor that renewed interest among Congress. So it might have been enough to get it over the hurdle, so to speak.

Who's the politician who basically came right out and said what the whole banning of tik tok was about? The one who said that this isn't about left or right, it's a generational thing of young vs old and they're losing the eyes of the youth. The can't effectively propagandize the youth.

Doesnt the idea of banning Tic-Tok predate the Oct. 7 attack?

IDK why a couple people are acting like the topic title isn't true when the quotation from Romney from state.gov is bolded in the OP. The government can and often does have multiple reasons it wants to ban something. What is true is that before 10/7 there was not sufficient will to get a TikTok ban actually passed and now they successfully did it.

Still confused on how it can control the narratives about Israel when the ban doesnt actually ban TikTok right at this moment, but forces them to sell to a US company and they have over 9 months to do it.

Still confused on how it can control the narratives about Israel when the ban doesnt actually ban TikTok right at this moment, but forces them to sell to a US company and they have over 9 months to do it.

Doesnt the idea of banning Tic-Tok predate the Oct. 7 attack?

The title of this thread is a mischaracterization too. None of it makes sense. Twisting reality to fit a chosen narrative.

Dog how can you post like this when the text, source and video are all there in the OP

Ever since the GOP had Viktor Orbon of Turkey speak at CPAC about how he took over the media there, Ive been looking for ways in which conservatives would try that here. Since then, Twitter got bought by a right winger and signal boosted right wing accounts while banning accounts he doesnt like.

The Tik Tok ban would be another step of this, and of course they get to use the Israel conflict as a pretense for it. So that would explain your point of how would this help Israel if then ban doesnt go into affect until next year, but it would line up nicely with the result if the 2024 election.

Still confused on how it can control the narratives about Israel when the ban doesnt actually ban TikTok right at this moment, but forces them to sell to a US company and they have over 9 months to do it.

Orban's Hungarian not Turkish.

Romney wasn't the first to make this point

https://twitter.com/mtracey/status/1782920301052911713