Opinion
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley took some online heat after claiming in last night’s GOP debate that watching TikTok videos makes you 17% more antisemitic every 30 minutes.
The claim came in the midst of Haley’s argument to ban TikTok, noting the Chinese-owned social media app has seen an uptick in pro-Palestine messaging.
“For every 30 minutes that someone watches TikTok every day, they become 17% more antisemitic, more pro-Hamas,” Haley reasoned.
Haley’s position seeking to ban TikTok is shared by many in her party, but the statistics that she is citing raise some eyebrows.
Let’s say you watch just 15 minutes of TikTok videos per day. Over one month, you’ve suddenly become 255% more antisemitic?
RELATED: Far-Left Dem Jamaal Bowman Goes to Bat For Chinese-Owned TikTok, Says Ban is ‘Racist’
Haley’s Sensational TikTok Claim Met With Some Skepticism
Haley’s claim that users become 17% more antisemitic every 30 minutes on TikTok was met with a significant amount of skepticism.
“Can confirm,” joked former Libertarian Party vice presidential nominee Spike Cohen. “I’ve been on TikTok for a few hours over the past year, and I’m now 238% antisemitic. My Rabbi was devastated.”
“So, how long does that take to be literally Hitler?” another X user quipped. “A few hours?”
“I am still trying to figure out what Nikki Haley is talking about. My TikTok feed is mostly cat videos and old episodes of Wife Swap,” another chimed in.
Haley’s claim comes after a dustup with fellow GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who pointed out that the former South Carolina governor’s daughter is on TikTok.
“In the last debate she made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time,” Ramaswamy said at the previous debate. “So you might want to take care of your family first.”
The jab prompted Haley to call Ramaswamy “scum.”
RELATED: Joe Rogan Slams TikTok App – China ‘Knows Every F***ing Thing You Type’
Does She Have a Point?
The question then becomes, did Nikki Haley have a point with her TikTok statistic? Well, yes and no.
She appears to be citing a survey in which various social media apps and their pro-Palestinian posts were measured against each other.
The survey finds that spending 30 minutes a day on TikTok increases the chances that somebody holds anti-Semitic or anti-Israel views by 17%, as opposed to 6% for Instagram and 2% for X.
It doesn’t mean that one individual gets more and more antisemitic as they watch their favorite cat videos.
TikTok countered the findings of such studies saying “blunt comparisons of hashtags is severely flawed and misrepresentative of the activity on TikTok.”
Lawmakers from both parties have stated that TikTok’s ownership by the Chinese tech company ByteDance opens up its millions of American users to data collection by the CCP.
Some Squad Democrats have criticized the GOP push to ban the Chinese-owned company.
“Republicans ain’t got no swag,” said Representative Jamaal Bowman (D-NY). “That’s why they want to ban TikTok.”
Bowman went on to claim any criticism of the platform is “racist” and “xenophobic.”
What do you think about this? Let us know in the comments section.
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