2/12 When Biden came into office, he revoked an executive order from Trump which had made moves to ban TikTok.
The issue was dropped until last year. What changed?
3/12 If you search for news items on the banning of TikTok, they do not surface again until October 2023
All the major politicians calling for the ban justified its urgency by claiming the app was promoting anti-Israel sentiment
4/12 The politician who put forward the legislation to ban TikTok was Mike Gallagher
Gallagher not only receives huge funding from the Israel lobby through AIPAC, but also Palantir, whose technology is being used by Israel in Gaza. Gallagher since accepted a job with Palantir
5/12 The law to ban TikTok was drafted a cabal of investors and lobbyists led by a Jewish Zionist named Jacob Helberg
Helberg also works for Peter Thiel's Palantir Technologies
6/12 Helberg said he had spoken to over 100 lawmakers about a TikTok ban, and that the proliferation of pro-Palestine content on the app was a "galvanizing force" for politicians to decide to push through with a ban.
7/12 Helberg drew on research from activist Jewish-Australian tech entrepreneur Anthony Goldbloom
Goldbloom is responsible for many of the claims made about the proliferation of antisemitism on TikTok, including Nikki Haleys claim that 30 minutes TikTok = 17% more antisemitism
8/12 The ADL also began a push against TikTok after October 7
Their report on TikTok expressed concern that they can't access TikTok analytics the way they can with every other big tech company
9/12 In November, Goldbloom organised a call between TikTok leadership and 40 "mostly Jewish tech leaders" to demand TikTok do more to censor anti-Israel content on the app
10/12 Not satisfied with TikTok's commitment on this, lawmakers pushed through with the bill
Jewish Federations of North America, one of the most influential Jewish lobby groups, wrote to lawmakers encouraging the bill due to TikTok allowing antisemitism. No mention of China
11/12 Recently, in a conversation between Mitt Romney and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, they said the ban of TikTok was directly because "the emotion, the impact of images has a very challenging effect on the narrative", the narrative being "Israel's PR"
12/12 Of course, it's now an antisemitic conspiracy theory to say the Israel lobby is behind the TikTok ban, even though every lawmaker and activist who pushed for the ban since October did it explicitly as a way to deal with growing anti-Israel sentiment
You be the judge
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Will the next Pope be a return to tradition for the Catholic Church, or even more progressive than Francis?
A look at the most likely candidates based on current betting odds ๐งต
34% ๐ฎ๐น Pietro Parolin: Vatican Secretary of State who is being called a "continuity candidate" that would continue Francis's reforms.
He was heavily criticised by conservatives in the Vatican for creating a deal with China that allowed the CCP influence over bishop nominations.
๐ต๐ญ 23% Luis Antonio Tagle: Known as "the Asian Francis" and considered even more progressive, Tagle has argued for the church softening its attitude to homosexuals, unwed mothers, and the divorced.
Like Francis, he's also known for social justice advocacy in his home country.
2/13 Obviously the existence of a German people has been known for a long time.
In 98 AD, Tacitus mapped Germania as including the land between the Rhine in the West beyond the Vistula in the East, and from the Danube in the South up to the Baltic seas.
3/13 The contention of this modernist approach to nationalism is that even if a Germanic people pre-existed the 19th Century, people never had a sense of national identity until then.
The Holy Roman Empire is a favourite of this argument due to how divided it was politically.
๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ฅ๐ธ๐พ For years, Israel covertly provided medical aid, weapons, and even paid the salaries of Jihadis in Syria, including Al-Qaeda
The full story of this relationship
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1/12
2/12 This relationship first became known when it was revealed that Israel was providing medical aid to anti-Assad fighters
Israel portrayed this as a principled humanitarian response but it turned out most was given to fighters from Al-Nusra front, the Syrian branch of Al-Qaeda
3/12 A former head of Mossad acknowledged this was motivated by a "tactical consideration" as Israel was โnot specifically targeted by Al-Qaedaโ